Don't Fear The Reaper
by vintagegirl
Summary: Wyatt knows that Chris's girlfriend is evil. So why won't his family realize that? Add in a preppy innocent that has demonic powers passed onto her that literally bring out the worst in people and let the chaos ensue.
1. Epilogue

_Hello, all. Well, here is the default chapter. Don't hate me yet. I will have the very first chapter ever up by sometime tomorrow night after I get off of work._

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It had all started with the front doors slamming into the house. Then, Wyatt had ran down the stairs to find out who was attacking them and had seen Victoria for the first time. They had battled each other until they both had been unconscious and the world was effected by the powers clashing.  
  
Then, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige had gotten together to find out why Victoria had come in and tried to brutally murder Piper's oldest son. The answer they hadn't really liked.  
  
Instead, of Victoria just being a random demon sent there to kill Wyatt she had come to seek her revenge on him. It seemed that Wyatt, in his past life, had been evil and in love with Victoria. Which were two very bad things when construed together since in this lifetime he had cursed her because she hadn't returned her love for his.  
  
Not only had he killed her in her past life, but in this one he had placed a curse on her. This curse would destroy anything or anyone that ever gave her a moment of happiness and not only that it would kill her at midnight of February 17th of her 19th year.  
  
The curse did its very job by killing everyone she knew and loved at her wedding ceremony. So, going crazy with grief she had come to the Charmed Ones house to take out her revenge on Wyatt once she figured out what had caused it.  
  
She had known she may have not been as powerful as Wyatt but she still had gone there to defeat him if possible. If not she had decided it was her suicide mission.  
  
So, they had all decided to try and help her out the best they could since she was their innocent. During this whole time, they figured out finally that all they needed was to get a ring that evil past life Wyatt had used to kill her with and place it on her finger before midnight of February 17th.  
  
They had found the ring by the help of Chris's suggestion of it being in the cemetery, but incidentally they also ended up resurrecting evil past life Wyatt's soul into Wyatt's body when they did and sending Wyatt back into his past life. At the time, they hadn't known what had happened so evil Wyatt had taken control of the situation and had buried both Piper and Phoebe in his old grave. Then, he had placed Paige in a magic free mausoleum to get them out of his way.  
  
He had then went back to the Manor to find Victoria so that he could take her for his own. There he had found Chris and Victoria happily in love with each other. Of course, he hadn't been able to handle it so he had beat Chris up for even touching his girl and then he had taken Victoria with him to Limbo where he knew not all the Charmed Ones could go after them and find them successfully.  
  
There he used his powers to create Victoria's wedding down to the last detail so he would be able to have power over her. Since, Limbo had the effect of taking a person's memory away them his powers creating her wedding day along with Limbo's aftereffects caused Victoria to chose evil past life Wyatt in the end.  
  
Chris came then to try and save her. By then, she had forgotten who he was and had been completely corrupted by evil past life Wyatt and Limbo. He had fought and had had the chance to get the ring off of evil Wyatt so that the real Wyatt could come back and take his body back. Which he did, but in the time he did it Victoria started dying because it was midnight and they hadn't placed the ring on her yet.  
  
Chris threw the ring to Wyatt with his last strength and there he watched as Victoria slowly recovered from her near death experience. Wyatt then healed Chris in order to save his badly wounded younger brother and then Chris went to Victoria. He kissed her to wake her up from the rest that had past over her body.  
  
She woke up in his arms alive. She then slowly remembered everything that had happened to her. As she did, Chris reminded her of the simple fact that she had lived to see another day. They then left Wyatt in Limbo so they could celebrate that fact together somewhere else.  
  
Of course, Wyatt had been happy to see his brother happy. He had also been corrupted through his semi in love emotions towards Victoria too that he hadn't known what to do. For he had saw something in her eyes that Chris hadn't and probably never would.  
  
He had saw evil in her eyes.  
  
He had seen a killer in her. 

Wyatt didn't put the last part into the Book of Shadows. He just wrote in Victoria's existence, her powers, and then he had added his evil past life self in case history tried repeating itself. Then, he shut the book and stared at the cover and fingered the symbol for the power of three. Wondering, always wondering, and hoping sooner or later he would figure out a way to figure out who's side Victoria really was.


	2. Feeling The Neverworld

Wow, can't believe I forgot this before. I don't own Charmed, etc. Plus, the song NOT AN ADDICT is performed by K'S CHOICE in real life.  
  
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"To you who have never died, may I say: Welcome to the world."  
-Clive Barker-  
  
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P3 was busy tonight.  
  
As usual Friday night was the biggest night on the town for P3. A lot of things had been bought, paid for, and celebrated because of the never lacking business always packed in front of the clubs doors. Of course, tonight was a little bit too busy because the new bartender, Val, the Swedish trainer and bartender on the side was started to look like he was going to go into a nervous breakdown at any minute.  
  
So, of course, Piper being the only one around at the time instantly went into the little bar and started grabbing as many orders as she could. Finally, when things did slow down she quickly exited the booth and sat down on a black stool. Her feet were sore and she swore she was going to end up paying for the speed she had just used with the baby later.  
  
Victoria appeared beside her a moment later and then sat down on the black bar stool right beside her. Piper gave her a look out of the corner of her eye as she sucked down a gulp of bottled water and gave a brief smile.  
  
Victoria was dressed to kill. If there was anything she had found out about the girl in the brief time she knew her it was that she always was dressed to kill.  
  
Right now she wore a long black leather skirt that had a sharded cut up the side. Her white-red top was slightly see through showing off her red trimmed black top underneath and on the fringes of the long sleeves as well as the bottom of the shirt was an Indian blood red glittered design. Her reddish brown hair was back in a long, simple ponytail that went down her back and her violet blue eyes were glittered in black eyeliner.  
  
Piper had to admit she hadn't really cared about her own clothes when she had come into the club. She had only thrown on a slightly dressy pair of black pants and a dressy business woman's white top.  
  
She hadn't had her appearance on her mind when she had come to the club. Instead, she had been worrying about the new band that was going to play in few minutes. She had taken her sights to a locally famous band instead of looking for a hot famous Hollywood band for once she knew she had picked the right band. This band, Red Helter, was getting a lot of coverage for just being local and not signed on to any label.  
  
Tonight, she thought, might actually get them signed.  
  
"So, how's my future mother in law faring with the baby and the club and the overly crowded music goers?" Victoria asked, cheerily as she plopped down on the seat.  
  
"Wait! What? Mother in law?" Piper squawked, almost falling out of the stool.  
  
"Oh, geez. Don't have the baby now, Piper. I was kidding." Victoria laughed as she placed a hand on Piper's arm to calm her.  
  
"Kidding, right," Piper responded with paranoia spread over her face.  
  
"Yeah, I am way to young to get married." Victoria said, rolling her violet- blue eyes.  
  
"Uh, right. Wait, weren't you the one that almost got married this very day last month?" Piper asked, waving her hand.  
  
"Um, yeah. Temporary insanity. You know with the curse and all. I'm all better now. Thank god," Victoria said laughing. Then she turned to the bartender. "Hey, Val. How about a pink D.N.A. ?"  
  
"Sure, Vic. Coming right up," he replied going for the drink.  
  
"Hold on, Val." Piper said to her bartender with a wave of her hand, and then to Victoria she said, "You aren't 21 yet."  
  
"Oh, Piper. Come on," Victoria pleaded. "Victory drink since it's been a whole month today that I've lived through the curse?"  
  
"Oh, no. I will not be the one to offer underage drinking at my club. I also won't be the one to get my son's girlfriend all liquored up either." Piper told her with a warning finger up as she wagged it at Victoria.  
  
"Fine," Victoria said, leaning her arms on the bar and resting her head in her hands.  
  
Piper shook her head and grinned away from Victoria so she wouldn't see it.  
  
It had been only a month that she had known the girl and yet they somehow were completely on good terms with one another. It had been awhile since Piper could admit being on good terms with anyone outside of the family. Besides the fact that Victoria was years younger then her and her son's girlfriend, she still thought of her as a friend.  
  
When she'd first met Victoria she well.. She hadn't met her really before she had tried to kill her with her own bare hands. Victoria had attacked her oldest son, Wyatt, she had blown the front doors out of the house, and then she had bested the rest of Piper's family with her powers.  
  
At first, she had thought that Victoria was the enemy. Of course, she had ended up being the exact opposite. She had ended up being an innocent.  
  
The girl that she had first met had been such an angry, confused, and grief stricken girl. She had tried to kill Wyatt just to get her revenge on him for killing everyone she loved on her wedding day. She had even admitted later on when they had all been in the same room together that she had done it all as a suicide mission. The girl Victoria had used to be, the one with the cryptic speaking, the non nonsense I'll kill you if you don't get out of my way girl, was gone. Victoria now was becoming a new person right before her eyes.  
  
Piper had to admit she really liked this girl better.  
  
For one thing, Victoria was slowly getting over the death and disaster of her old life. Now, she was trying to move while standing on her own two feet. She was so much happier now.  
  
Piper had to give Chris credit. He could bring out the best in people if he had the chance to. Piper had to admit it had to be his sensitivity that really had been a good thing for Victoria. Sure, they all had tried in their own ways to help her get over everything that she had lost and everything she was still reeling from that the curse had thrown on her.  
  
It wasn't the easiest thing to do with the girl though. She had something with standing on her own two feet that Piper had never really had in her life. She had done it herself many times. When Grams had died and everyone had went their own separate ways and then when Prue had died and she had to bring the family back together. It had been hard, and she hadn't really wanted to do any of it, but she had to. So she had.  
  
It was just weird for her to see Victoria doing it all on her own. She had no one there for her family wise like Piper had had. She had herself to live with and herself to pick up the old pieces of her past. Piper had watched everyday surprised that Victoria had the strength to sell the very house that she had grown up in to get her own, then she'd sold the stuff she didn't find any need of that belonged to her family, and then she had moved into her own place. It was a surprise that she had been able to do that all on her own without really breaking down as much as Piper knew she would have if it had been her in Victoria's shoes.  
  
Sometimes, when she looked at Victoria she could see a little Prue inside of her. Sure, they had no relation to each other but the clear determination to give up what she couldn't fix and right everything else that she could was all Prue. Piper had a feeling if Prue had lived to see this she would have probably adopted Victoria for her own daughter since they had a lot of qualities alike. The dressed to kill look also was a bit of Prue's forte too.  
  
Piper just hoped that with her new chance at life Victoria didn't take it for granted and did everything with it that she wanted. She doubted that she would take it for granted after everything she was already doing with it. It hadn't been a day cold of the Victoria selling her old home that she had proclaimed that she was going to go to college. Sure, she hadn't picked anything yet to be when she grew up but the first two years didn't really matter for that anyways.  
  
They all had told Victoria that if she needed any help with anything to just come to them. Maybe, had been her response, but at least it was something. Right now, Victoria needed to go through things alone just to find some closure with everything, but one day it wouldn't be so easy. Piper just wished she wasn't so against asking for help. Of course, they all had an insider to Victoria's life, Chris would tell them if their help was needed. Hopefully, it never really was.  
  
"Piper?" Victoria asked as Piper realized she had drifted away in her own thoughts.  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"Well, are you sure you should be here? You're pregnant and all and it's like the month where the baby could be born at any moment. So, why of all places are you in a bar? Shouldn't you be at home resting?" Victoria asked.  
  
"It's the first night ever that I've let a local band play here. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay for it." Piper told her.  
  
"Oh," Victoria said and winced.  
  
"Why? You trying to get rid of me so that Val will get you a drink?" Piper asked, kidding. She hadn't seen the slight wince go through Victoria as she looked back to her tired bartender.  
  
"Oh, yeah. He and I, we've got a deal. He gives me free drinks and in return I.."  
  
"You what?" Chris asked appearing out of no where.  
  
"Well, I can't say I know what you are referring to. Hey, don't you think your mom should be at home resting?" Victoria asked , leaning against Chris as he looked down at her face.  
  
Chris then looked over at his mother. It was like he was noticing her for the first time. Piper almost felt like last nights leftovers, but then she didn't care. She was happy to see her son there for once and ready to have a good night on the town instead of at home studying up on any possible threats.  
  
"You know, you're right. We really should be getting her home. It's way past her bedtime as it is," he agreed.  
  
"Hey, now you two. I am not going anywhere. I have responsibilities here, and I'm not going to leave the club up in the air while you two get as many free drinks as you can," she told them folding her arms over her chest half serious about the whole thing.  
  
"Damn," Chris mumbled. "She knows the plan."  
  
"Yeah, I think you let it slip last time you were intoxicated." Victoria told him raising her eyebrow.  
  
"Last time?" Piper asked, still genuinely amused.  
  
"Yeah, well. What can I say?"  
  
"Peer pressure made me do it, I believe the words were." Piper told him with a smirk.  
  
"Hey, I was like sixteen," Chris whined.  
  
"Yeah, and I wasn't pregnant. What does that have to do with anything?" Piper laughed.  
  
Piper stopped laughing as she saw how pale Victoria's face had gotten.  
  
Of course, Victoria had always been pale, but she looked deathly white as she leaned onto the bar. The whole time Chris and Piper had spoke to each other she had started shaking. Now, as all eyes fell on her she just shook her head and tried to smile. Somehow the shaking subsided as she took a deep breath and looked at both of them as if they were making a big thing out of nothing. There never was nothing in their situations.  
  
"I'm fine. I just was cold for a second," she told them in a steady voice.  
  
Chris tried to warm her arms with his hands. Piper watched Victoria as she dropped her gaze from theirs and looked down. There sure as hell was something wrong, but she wasn't going to tell them. As this realization came to Piper's mind, Victoria picked up her head and gave them both a brilliant smile that almost could wax away all their worries. She was a good actress, Piper thought vacantly as she looked at her.  
  
"Now, don't you guys go off and change the subject. I wouldn't mind a D.N.A," she called lightly over her shoulder.  
  
As she said this, Piper just shook her head. She was never going to give up. She laughed along with her son as she looked at the stage in front of them. The band had quit setting up, and sound check was finally over. Now, they were ready to go and do their show. The crowd had all gone up to the stage and waited for the band to start. Piper inwardly hoped the band was as good as its following.  
  
"Hello, all. We're Red Helter." the petite blond called down to them. She gave a brief nod to her band members and then turned her head back to the microphone. "This is our first song. It's called Not An Addict."  
  
The singer started moaning in the microphone as Piper watched hoping that that wasn't the whole song as the guitar started in behind the moaning and then the drums started. Piper looked at the crowd hoping for something good to come of inviting a local band there. The crowd showed nothing yet as they listened to the song. Chris took a few steps out to see the singer better as the song began.  
  
Then the words started.  
  
"Breath it in and breath it out, And pass it on, it's almost out," the singer sang in her alto voice  
  
At least there's words, Piper thought happily.  
  
It was then that Victoria who had been sitting on the bar stool beside her a moment before pitched backwards into the crowd in a dead faint.


	3. Catch Me Now I'm Falling

Sorry, it's been awhile. Plus, whenever I come back after like a week off of writing there is something always in my way of putting this up.

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Wyatt finally entered the club after being detained in line forever until one of the bouncers realized who he was. He had finally made it. Of course, he still had some reservations for even coming. Sure, his family would be there and Chris would actually be there for once to have a fun time, but he still had a bad feeling about it all.  
  
It seemed like forever since Chris and he had been in the same room together let alone talked to one another. It wasn't Victoria's fault for this either. Not completely, that is. Chris had been with her every day he could since the day they had saved her. Of course, Wyatt would have done the same thing for the girl he loved especially after everything that Victoria had faced.  
  
Victoria had been through a lot and now she was trying to repair her life. Unlike most people that slowly go through life and deal with the loss of everyone and everything natural to them, Victoria had just decided to plow through the caution tape of it all and get what she needed done.  
  
She had decided to sell her family's house and also the house they had left to her as a wedding present. These two things, Wyatt understood. He wouldn't want to be in the Manor if he had lost his family and his fiancé there on his own wedding day. So, he could completely agree with her on it all.  
  
She had then bought her own house in order to start anew, and then she'd decided she was going to college. Which was weird since she should have been mourning, but instead she had seen a way to get her life going again.  
  
In the last month, she had somehow found a way to go through all her worldly possessions as well as her family's and decide what she needed or didn't need before having a yard sale on most of it. She then had went through all her wedding gifts and chose what she wanted to keep or whatnot since she couldn't really return them to the dead people who had given them to her. The things she got two of or didn't need she had even contributed to charity so others could use them.  
  
In between it all, she had talked with the police to verify what had happened to everyone. She had told them she had been in shock when it had happened and she had fled. She hadn't known what to do so she had gone to the Halliwell's where she finally told them what happened and then had made her go to the police to tell them everything.  
  
The police had accepted her story and with it they had decided to say a freak accident had happened. They had explained the deaths of everyone at her wedding as a freak lightning storm that had killed everyone there from either shock or being struck. They had even patted her on the back and said she was lucky to survive it.  
  
She was going through life and on with it without a hitch. Which had started Wyatt worrying all over again. Sure, she was good now. All her acts of kindness and her occasional helping of his family to vanquish demons showed that, but then there was always something off about it all.  
  
Instead, of showing the feelings she was compressing about everything in the world she was going through. Especially, everything she was going through at fast rates of time. He knew she had to keep herself busy in order to not think about how life had changed, but he knew something wrong could happen because of it.  
  
Not only was she beyond powerful, but she could hurt someone when she finally realized that she couldn't just ignore her grief.  
  
He knew that was one of the main reasons that Chris was always with her as of late. He was waiting for her to need him. Sure, she needed Chris and they were great together, but in the same moment of needing him to stay sane Wyatt could tell that she didn't really want to attach herself to Chris. He could tell she didn't want to get hurt all over again because of the godforsaken curse, but they had ended the curse. He didn't know why she couldn't accept that fact.  
  
Victoria, now more then ever, was still a puzzle within itself.  
  
She didn't let many things out if she didn't need to yet at the same time she was completely see through. At least to Wyatt. He could see her suffering and her lame attempts at trying not to let others know. He could tell she was as strong but not as willing to live as she should be with her second chance at life. Which had struck him as odd, but he never had understood her. Even now as he saw her smiling and leaning against Chris he could see her death wish sealed inside of her violet-blue eyes.  
  
He could also see the plain and simple fact that she was one of the most beautiful people he had ever seen. She was beautiful inside as well as out and that was hard to find now a days in the plastic age. She had a mind of her own as well. Something he had to give her credit for, and if he didn't then he would just be a fool.  
  
She was every bit as powerful as the Halliwell family was. She was almost more then that and it wasn't only because of her powers, but because of her drive. He hated to admit it with his brother also being in love as well as dating her, but he was in love with her too.  
  
Sure, she thought nothing loving really towards him because of his past life and everything else, but she was still trying to stay on good terms with him. More then before, he had to admit she was willing to accept the fact that he wasn't the same evil cripple of a human being his past life self had been.  
  
For that he loved her even more.  
  
He had tried to keep it a secret how he felt for her. She knew it. She had to, or at least she was trying to stay in denial about. Otherwise, he tried to keep it as much of a secret from his family as anything. Which was hard when his own mother knew him inside out nad his Aunt Phoebe was an empath.  
  
Sometimes, it really sucked to be magical.  
  
He didn't want Chris to know. He didn't want to Chris to think that he would do anything to stop them from being together. No matter what, he wanted his brother to be happy.  
  
The only problem with that fact was that when they had saved her he had seen something in her no one else seemed to be seeing. He had seen a killer and he knew better then to denounce that fact. He knew that whatever had happened between her and Andrew had been big.  
  
He knew that it had changed her for the worse.  
  
He wished his brother could see that. Of course, he also didn't really wish for that just because he had a feeling that what he wished for would soon come true. He had a feeling it would come true in the worst possible way. Because of that, Wyatt had a feeling it would destroy both Chris and Victoria in the worst possible ways.  
  
He tried to shake these thoughts from his mind in order to get into a better mood. He couldn't just show up there and ruin Chris's good time.  
  
It didn't take him long to find a distraction. In the front of the crowd, he heard the lead singer of Red Helter singing her song. Her deep alto voice barricaded itself inside of his mind as he slowly made his way to his family and Victoria. Something about that voice was so compelling. Something about the singer was making him want to stand spellbound at the front of the crowd like everyone else was.  
  
_"Breath it in and breath it out, And pass it on, it's almost out,"_ the singer sang in her alto voice  
  
At least there's words, Piper thought happily.  
  
It was then that Victoria who had been sitting on the bar stool beside her a moment before pitched backwards into the crowd in a dead faint.  
  
Piper who had only looked away from Victoria a moment before instantly glanced back as she saw some movement out of the corner of her eye. There, Victoria was. Her face had become the color of a corpse and now she was plunging backwards into the crowd. Her violet-blue eyes were now closed and she was completely out of it. Piper didn't have much time to respond or do anything.  
  
"Victoria," she cried as she started to scoot off of the black bar stool.  
  
Chris who had been looking up at the singer looked back at the same moment his mother had cried out and saw what had happened. He took a few running steps and then plunged towards Victoria. His knees brushed the bars ground as he slid over the floor to catch her.  
  
In that moments time, he had somehow successfully saved Victoria from falling back onto the hardwood floor. He looked down over her extremely pale face in worry. She had said nothing was wrong, but he hadn't believed her. He should have stayed next to her. If he had then she wouldn't have almost gotten herself hurt far worse then she already was.  
  
He touched her forehead with his forehand to find a cold sweat that lingered over its surface. Other then that, she lay slack in his arms as he looked down on her desperately trying to find some reason for her falling over.  
  
Instead, he found none. She had no wounds and no one had attacked her. His mother would have froze them if someone had or Victoria would have cried out if she had been attacked. Whatever was wrong with her was staying with her as she laid unconscious in his arms.  
  
In the background the singer kept on singing her song as if nothing happened.  
  
"_We're so creative, so much more, We're high above, but on the floor.."  
_  
He watched her chest rise and fall in a shaky breath. At least she was still breathing.  
  
"Victoria?" he called to her, but she showed no reaction as she lay slackly inside of his arms.  
  
"Is she okay?" Piper asked, as she finally made it to kneel down slightly beside them.  
  
"I don't know. She's breathing. But that's all I know right now. Mom, what happened," he asked her raising his forest green eyes up to hers in worriment. He touched the inside of her wrist and felt her heartbeat. It was slow. It was slower then it should be.  
  
"It's not a habit, it's cool, I feel alive If you don't have it you're on the other side." the singer sang.  
  
"Chris, she just fainted. I didn't have time to react or I would have froze everything." Piper told him.  
  
"I know. I barely even made it to her!"  
  
"Hey, you guys what's up?" Wyatt asked as he came over to them after surfacing from behind two very large guys blocking his sight of what had happened.  
  
There he looked down to find Victoria laying in Chris's arms unconscious. Instantly, he looked around them looking for the source of why she was unconscious. Seeing none, he looked back at his mother and brother in questioning. What happened? He had been behind those two guys trying to cut through the crowd for less then a minute and already Victoria was unconscious and basically on the floor.  
  
"_The deeper you stick it in your vein, The deeper the thoughts, there's no more pain_," the singer sang on into the microphone inside of her own world as much as the Charmed Ones were into theirs.  
  
When no response was made Wyatt froze time around them. It was the best h could do without any answers that were needed. At least this way they could talk to one another without being censored.  
  
"What the hell's going on?" he asked, as he looked down at his brother and mother kneeling on the floor.  
  
"Wyatt, you don't have to freeze the room. There's nothing magically wrong here." Piper told her oldest son as she slowly came to her feet. There she stood beside Wyatt three inches shorter then him.  
  
"I can see that, mom. I just thought it would be better if Victoria could get some air without everyone crowding around her like they will when they realized she's passed out. This way we don't get any unnecessary attention." Wyatt informed his mother.  
  
"You know what? Good thinking, Wyatt" she told him pointing her index finger at him with a grin, and then she turned to Chris. "So, Chris? Do you think you can get her to the backroom?"  
  
"Yeah, I think so. Nice thinking, Wy." Chris said as he got to his feet with Victoria in his arms.  
  
Chris was heavily surprised that for once Wyatt was thinking about doing something good that effected Victoria. Ever since they had saved her life and killed off evil past life Wyatt, he had been acting strangely around Victoria.  
  
At first, Chris had thought that maybe it was because he didn't know how to act around her after everything, but then he'd realized it was something else. Wyatt wouldn't tell him though. He had started to hint at a few things over the last month about Victoria, but then he had admitted that he didn't really know for sure and had backed off.  
  
Chris also knew something that Wyatt didn't want him to really know.  
  
He knew that Wyatt had a lot more then friendly feelings for Victoria. Once, when Wyatt hadn't thought anyone was watching he had just stared at Victoria in the first few days that she had been housebound to the Manor so everyone could watch over her while she dealt with everything that had happened. Chris had seen him though. He had seen the feelings behind how Wyatt was acting.  
  
There were millions of girls in the world and he didn't doubt that Wyatt could have any one of them if he tried. He just wished Wyatt would go for someone that Chris wasn't with at the time. Like Glenda who lived down the street, went to the same school they had, and had had a crush on Wyatt since kindergarten.  
  
"I do what I can," Wyatt said shrugging his shoulders. "You sure you got her?"  
  
"Yeah," Chris said, "I'm fine."  
  
Piper watched both brother's and itched the side of her forehead not knowing exactly what to do in the slight tension. She hadn't seen them like this towards each other since Wyatt had ruined Chris's favorite pokemon toy as a child. Now, they were acting like this all because of a girl. Instantly, she went straight into being the family buffer she had been for so many years before Prue had died and tried to refrain them from getting any worse.  
  
"Alright, guys. Wyatt, how about you unfreeze the room before someone comes in off the street and gets the shock of their lifetime. And Chris," she said as he started to move towards the back room. He turned to her, "Take care of her. See what you can do to see what made her faint. I have a feeling that this has been going on for longer then any of us knows, and it's about time that Victoria starts answering questions."  
  
Chris nodded and then turned back towards the backroom. Just as he did the room unfroze around him. People who were moving to the music started up again as he started to press through them. A few saw him and were interested in why there was a unconscious girl in his arms while others just minded their own business and danced to the song playing out around him.  
  
"_I'm in heaven, I'm a god, I'm everywhere, I feel so hot."  
  
_Chris held tighter to Victoria's limp body as she started to shake in his arms. He looked around the area to make sure no one was looking in their direction. There wasn't a soul in sight that saw them. So he used his telekinesis to open the door to make it easier on himself. If his mother had been there she would have complained about personal gain, but again she wasn't so he didn't dwell on the though. He had to find out what was happening to Victoria.  
  
He had to see if he could heal her and find out what was going on with her. Why she hadn't been truthful to them and admitted to feeling sick. Why she always had to be strong for everyone and never let anyone in enough to see that she was hurting. He hated her martyr syndrome when it came to her hurting herself enough to be unconscious and possible deathly sick in his arms. He wished she would trust him enough to tell him everything and not just let him be on the outside of all her feelings.  
  
Chris hurriedly took her into the backroom. There, he used his telekinesis to turn on a small green lamp on the redwood desk and then he went around the desk. He for once was happy that they had a small mattress in the back office. Why, he had no clue, but at least it was there for times like these.  
  
He gently placed Victoria onto the mattress and pushed her matted reddish brown curls away from her face. She looked like death. She was so pale and she wasn't at all in the same plane as he was. He sat on the edge of the creaky white mattress and looked down on her.  
  
In only the short time that was a month, he had hated and loved her. She had come into his life as an enemy there only under the suicide mission of killing his own brother. Then, he had found out why she really was there. She had been trying to get her revenge as well as trying to find a way to survive a curse that Wyatt had placed on her in their last lifetime together.  
  
He'd went to her after she had left the truth bomb over their house. She had admitted to everyone that she had only come to die. He had went to her to see who she really was and because during the time she had been talking to them like a rational human being he had started to feel something towards her that he hadn't felt in a long time towards someone.  
  
He'd fallen for her.  
  
Everything had happened so fast then. Somehow evil Wyatt had come out of no where and she had been kidnapped by him. Chris had been the only one who could have saved Victoria as well as bring his brother back to his real lifetime. So, he had went after her.  
  
After the fight, he had gotten his older brother back and saved Victoria's life. No longer was she cursed to die young and relive another life with the curse hanging over her head, but now she was here with him alive and she loved him. She was happy.  
  
His brother on the other hand. Wyatt, he didn't now what to say about him. He had started acting strange. He wasn't being himself. He would stay away for long periods of time whenever Victoria was there or else he would stand there and stare at them as if they were aliens.  
  
Whatever it was, Wyatt was staying close lipped about it and Chris was starting to get annoyed. He was sick and tired of the way his brother was acting. It made him worry even more then before. Because sometimes he had a feeling that evil past life Wyatt hadn't really been completely destroyed. Deep down, Chris had a feeling that Wyatt had somehow kept the bad crazy part of his past life self and was now wandering around every day with that in himself.  
  
Sometimes, Chris wanted to exorcize his brother just to find out if he was still infected with his evil past self. Other times, he wanted to use the truth spell in the Book of Shadows already to find out what Wyatt really was thinking about whenever he acted strange and pulled himself away from everyone.  
  
Chris pushed his thoughts of action away as he looked down on Victoria. Whatever had happened to her it was really screwing her up. Already, she was sweating and shaking like she had a high fever. She didn't though. She was cold to the touch.  
  
Chris grabbed an extra blue black blanket hanging off of the office chair and laid it over her shaking body and then he resumed his place beside of her. He knew of only one thing he could do right now. He had to try to heal her.


	4. The Missing Pieces

I had a bit of a life these last two weeks: work, job interview, linkin park concert, more work, moving out for good of the apartment, moving back in, buffy trivia party, school closhes shopping, etc. So, I am trying to be greatly cool by giving long ass chapters to you to deal with while I am gone. Or when I am dealing with the harsh reality of writer's block that this story keeps provoking.

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Victoria moaned and sat up. Immediately, the worst headache ever came to her as she did. Dizziness also took control of her as she closed her eyes to the pain of the world around her. When it eased off of her a bit she opened her eyes.  
  
She knew it was too quiet to be where she thought she was. She wasn't in P3 anymore. Instead, she was in her old house. It was the one with all her childhood memories and last the place anyone she ever knew had been alive.  
  
She stood slowly and looked around herself. It looked perfectly normal. It was a bit vacant now, but it looked just like her old house. Of course, a rare episode in Limbo a month ago had shown her that places could come as well as easily go.  
  
It was just like the last time she had seen it. For a moment, she wondered if she somehow had been sent back in time for some reason. Perhaps, she had forgotten something here or maybe there was a real reason that this place seemed to be haunting her.  
  
She was inside of her living room. The couch was there inside of its plastic wrap so it wouldn't be ruined from moving, there were tons of boxes everywhere in piles on the red carpeted floor, and the windows were completely bare of their dark red velvety curtains.

She had loved those red velvet curtains as a child. She had played in them every chance she could get when her parents didn't yell at her for doing it. She used to pretend she was a princess and they were her royal cloak.  
  
Now, they were folded and inside one of the labeled boxes nearby.  
  
Moving had been hard. She hadn't really wanted to do it. She had wanted to stay there forever. She loved that house more than anything, but she knew that in order to keep her sanity she had to let it go. If she lived there she knew she would only dwell in the past instead of taking full advantage of the present and soon to be future.

She had had to leave the place.  
  
Sure, it held memories that she wanted to preserve. Sure, it was the most welcoming place on earth for her besides the Halliwell's Manor, but here... here was where the memories lie. Not only did the memories lie there but they also took over the place. Just by being in it now she could hardly stop them from coming into her mind.

It was in this room that they had placed the christmas tree. It was here that she had told her father, sister, and stepmother that she was getting married to Mark. Here was the place her sister and she would make tents and play castleroma. Here her father had cried for the first time when he found out her mother had died.

Everything important had happened here. Her family and she had so many memories raging inside of this room that spanned over the time they had lived inside the house. It was this room that they lived in most in her memory.

This was why she had moved. Her memories haunted her. She had heard a little wives tale as a child from her mother about a girl and all she did was live in her past. She never enjoyed her future because the past was so welcoming to her. The girl never grew up because of this.  
  
Victoria wanted to grow up. She wanted to be able to live. She hadn't had that chance before because of Andrew's godforsaken curse, but now she did. She wasn't going to abuse it like the girl in the wives tale  
  
She slowly walked over to the bay window and looked out onto her backyard. She was going to miss it. She had spent so many lazy summer days back there. Most of anything she was going to miss the veranda. It had been her favorite place in the whole world also in her whole life. Now, it was still beautiful but she would never go near it again. It was tainted now. Because of all the death that surrounded her home, it was tainted.  
  
Death must have had a field day on her wedding day. He had taken everyone there including her fiancé without even leaving any survivors. Besides the various wars, a few rare plagues, and Titanic, he must have loved being at her wedding.  
  
"Victoria." a whisper invaded the air around her like perfumed jasper on a rainy day.  
  
She quickly turned. Her back against the window, she looked for the source of the whisper. No one was there. It was getting dark in the room. There was no electricity here since she had turned it off. Soon she would be in the dark in her abandoned, haunted house with whoever else that was there with her.  
  
Whoever it was had brought her here for some reason. She didn't know if it were to toy with her or to kill her. She didn't know and she hated not knowing. What she hated more then that was the fact that she couldn't see who it was that was playing this reindeer game with her.  
  
Her violet-blue eyes scanned the room for something. Anything even. Just some random shadow that didn't fit in with the rest, or the rare movement of the figure who was there with her in the silent house.

No one was there though.  
  
What she did find though was a flickering red candle. The candle was rare. It's flame was not golden like normal candles it was a silvery-white color that belied its age.  
  
It sat on the last box she had packed up before moving out. It sat quaintly dripping wax all over the boxes surface before it slowly rose in the air and dipped a little. The dip made more red candle wax fall onto the cardboard boxes lid and reminded her of someone trying to get her to follow them.  
  
She had no other choice. She had to follow it. Curiousity of who was screwing with her was playing more over her mind then the repercussion of it all.  
  
"Victoria," the whisper resounded around the room again.  
  
What? When did I get surround sound? She wondered in dark humor as she walked to the red floating candle. There she looked down at the wax over the cardboard box.  
  
The candle instantly started on its path to its owner. She followed it as the hair on the back of her neck rose. The idea that perhaps this was only a ghost of one of her dead relatives come to get its revenge on her had approached a climax in her mindset as she followed it.

Whoever it was they knew her house well.  
  
She followed it around the dark wood doorway to the pale green hallway that lead at a slant to the staircase. There it descended the steps as she stood at the bottom.

Her hand rested on the top darkly smooth wood beam. Upstairs would be darker then down here. She wouldn't be able to see half of the things up there. She'd always hated her hallway at night. There just had always been something so very creepy about it.  
  
She'd always believed it was haunted. Well, if it wasn't then then it was now.  
  
The candle stopped on its ascent and wiggled in the air trying to get her to come along with it. She watched it. She knew she had the power to go up those very stairs. She had the willpower as well as the magical power to destroy whatever may be up there. It was just the fact that even as a child she had hated that hallway and now here there was a candle floating around trying to lead her up into it.  
  
"What do you want?" she called up the stairs to the red candle. Red wax filtered off of the corner of it and landed splattering over the dark wood stairs. It wiggled again as if to get her to move faster up the stairs to get killed.  
  
Yeah, like she was up for that.  
  
She waited at the bottom of the stairs and looked around at the shadow infested house around her. Her house felt different then it had before. Something was here with her. Something that was strong and undeniable. She didn't want to meet up with it anytime soon. She wanted to be at P3 with Chris and Piper hanging out at the bar still.  
  
Her luck was nonexistent though and she stayed in the same place she was. She knew she could easily blink right out of there. If that were possible. Right now she didn't really know if she were dreaming or not. She had never blinked anywhere while asleep so she didn't know what kind of damage she could create with that. Plus, if she still was at P3 and others saw her just disappear there may be many questions needing answered to that that she didn't know how to answer without causing mass hysteria.  
  
Her best bet no matter how much she hated it was to ride this out. To try to figure out if this were only a dream or if it were true.  
  
"You," the voice answered.  
  
"Great. How many stalkers can a girl have in a lifetime?" she whispered bitterly.  
  
Then, she ascended the stairs since there was nothing else for her to do. She wanted to know who wanted her this time. She wanted to kick his ass.  
  
She also wanted to make sure of one very important detail. She wanted to know that this stalker wasn't Andrew. She wanted to make sure he hadn't somehow figured out a way to come back to her again and take her away from everything she had tried to piece back together.  
  
At the top, the candle waited a moment for her. Then, it took off faster then her eyes could manage and it flew through the door at the end of the black hallway.

The door she knew well. She had traveled to it many a time in her life. The door lead to her bedroom.  
  
Right now, it was hard to deflect all the memories that were spasming inside of her brain.

Going into that room would be like asking for it. That was her room. It was the place her mother had told her bedtime stories, where her sister and herself had made up great stories of trapped princesses that they played out, it was the place her stepmother along with her father had told her they were getting married, it was the place Mark had last talked with her before their wedding day.  
  
Of all places to go, she didn't want to enter that room. She slowly approached it though. She had made Chris pack everything inside of it for her, she had made him bring it down to the living rooms chaotic box mess just so she didn't have to be inside of it.  
  
She touched the white door and took a deep breath. She wouldn't let her fear take a hold of her. Especially, not when this was the only place that the evil could be. Weirdly, she felt like knocking at the door in her hysterically bubbled mind.  
  
It felt like a strangers room she was entering after everything that had happened.  
  
"Come in," the voice told her.  
  
It was a cold voice. It was an impatient voice. It was a man's voice. She knew that much. She also knew the voice well. She couldn't place it as of now but she knew it. She felt like she knew it more through her dreams then her real life.  
  
She pushed the white door open. Quickly looking around her for something. Anything to figure out where the voice was coming from. She found nothing. Just an eerie room with her canopy bed still in it standing there in the dark moonlit room.  
  
"Come out, come out wherever you are," she called into the desolate room.  
  
No movement came. She was still there alone. She was still alone and desperate for something to happen. When it didn't come out of the shadows anger drilled through her familiarly as she stood in place at the center of the room. Whoever was playing a game with her was going to get its ass kicked once she found them.  
  
"Marco," she called out in a last attempt.  
  
When nothing happened she shook her head and turned to the doorway of her room. She started for it, but before she reached it it slammed shut in front of her face and instantly locked itself from her. She had only taken one step before she was thrown by some unseen force straight backwards through the air where gravity took over and she flew towards the bed. There she landed hard on her back as she looked around the room.

Her attacker hadn't even shown himself the whole time. Her heart beat hard inside of her chest as she sat up on her bed searching for something or even anything. Her attacker was invisble to her. She was screwed.  
  
"Alright, stop playing games. You wanted me and now you have me. Now, let's get this over and done with," she yelled at the pitch black shadows around her.  
  
"Always so impatient, Victoria." the voice responded.  
  
It came from a corner in the room. She quickly turned on the bed to see who it was. There was only a mirror in the corner that she could see before her. Inside the mirror, she could see her own reflection of herself sitting up on the bed and searching the dark room for anything. Right now all she could see was the dark black figure of herself.  
  
"How would you know?" she asked.  
  
"Because I've watched over you your whole life."  
  
"Sure," she responded as she glided off of the bed and started over to the corner with the mirror hoping to find what she was looking for.  
  
"You were given to me to watch."  
  
"Oh, sure. Are you going to pull that I'm your guardian angel and I have been looking out for you you're whole life, believe in god and he will save your soul stuff on me. Because I know for a fact that no guardian angel would just kidnap it's client and then use force to keep them in the same room with them. Plus, guardian angels aren't the type to come out of the closet so to to speak. So, you had better figure out a new cover story before I figure out where you are." she informed him getting to her feet and brushing herself off.  
  
"Or what? Are you going to kill me?" the voice laughed around her. "News flash, Victoria. You can't use your powers when you are unconscious, which you are. I have control here not you."  
  
"So who are you to me?" she asked.  
  
"I am no one to you. I am everything to your life."  
  
"Nice little play on words, Mr. Riddler. How about you give me a clue. Huh? Make it easy on me while you hold me captive."  
  
"I have many names."  
  
"Yeah, well so do I when it comes to different lifetimes."

"I have been here since the beginning of time."  
  
"Okay, and yet you have been hovering around me? Let's face it my life was plain out boring until last month. What did you find so interesting?" she asked.  
  
"You."  
  
Victoria raised her eyebrows and shook her head. Great, just great. Some guy was stalking her again. He had been stalking her her whole life which meant that he had to be a pedophile and here she was alone in her house with him. In her bedroom, no less. I wonder what he wants, she thought sarcastically as she moved far away from the bed.  
  
"I almost had you. This very day is the anniversary of your death," the voice whispered.  
  
Okay, who would know that?

Victoria shivered as cold spread through her body. All the people she knew and everyone she was related to was dead. No one who had known about her death fate had lived through the wedding. Plus, Andrew, the one who had cursed her in the first place, was gone now. He had died a month to this day.

So who the hell could this be?  
  
He'd said he knew her her whole life. Which just couldn't be true. Not unless he was a stranger, of course. Even then he wouldn't have known her. He had to be lying. He had to be fucked up and think she was someone else.  
  
"Okay," she said slowly still searching. "So, you have known me my whole life? Answer me this then, what's my middle name?"  
  
"Angeles."  
  
"Alright, lucky guess. Was my mother at my wedding?" she asked.  
  
"Trick question. She died when you were four. In the cemetery with you right beside her."  
  
Panic erupted through her as she searched desperately for whoever was there with her. Her middle name he could have found out easily through old mail lying around the house or something. Her mother's death and her being beside her at that moment he couldn't.  
  
She tried to make a reasonable answer to how he knew so much. She easily came up with one. Well, maybe if it was in the newspaper. Maybe, the fact that her mother had died with her child beside her in the cemetary was news worthy.

She tried to calm herself and tell herself he knew nothing about her but what was politicized or what he had found around the house.  
  
But he drenched that hope with his next roughly spoken words.  
  
"Child, you will use your magic again. I'm sorry for the circumstances that will lead you to it. But fate must be answered to. You're cursed, Victoria. You will never know what love or happiness is. If you do feel it for even the slightest moment you will pay dearly for it. I'm sorry, my baby. I can't help you at all.  
"I love you, my baby. Don't forget that ever. I'm just sleepy, baby. Mommy, just needs a little rest. Now, sweetheart. I want you to dial 9-1-1 when I start to sleep. Tell them.."  
  
Victoria stepped backed into the canopy bed hitting her shoulder hard against its golden frame. Those had been her mother's very last words to her.

As he'd said her mother's words, she had been transported straight back to her side. Her mother's hazel eyes had been gleaming and they had been so sad. She had warned her the only way and the best way that she could.

She had told her that her future held death.  
  
Her mother. He had been there for her last words, but she hadn't seen him. She'd been a child worried about her mother and doing what her mother had asked. She had never seen anyone in the cemetery with her.  
  
He was invisible though. He could have been there the whole time and she wouldn't have known it. He could have been there inside of that house watching her every moment of every day without her even considering it.

He was invisible he could be anywhere, do anything, and he could get away with it.  
  
Ewww. He could have even been there watching her when she took showers. What a pervert.


	5. Born As Ghosts

"_It's not a habit, it's cool, I feel alive _

_If you don't have it you're on the other side _

_I'm not an addict _

_Maybe that's a lie_," Red Helter's lead singer sang in the distance.  
  
Chris pushed his thoughts of action away as he looked down on Victoria. Whatever had happened to her it was really screwing her up. Already, she was sweating and shaking like she had a high fever. She didn't though. She was cold to the touch.  
  
Chris grabbed an extra blue black blanket hanging off of the office chair and laid it over her shaking body and then he resumed his place beside of her. He knew of only one thing he could do right now. He had to try to heal her.  
  
He quickly sat back down on the cot. There he laid his hands over her stomach. He didn't know exactly what he should heal. She had fainted. He didn't really know where to start healing her so he was just going to try everything until something worked. He didn't know if magic had been involved so he hoped that this would work. He hoped that she hadn't just overworked herself and her body had given up in exhaustion because then he would really have to hope the powers that be would get him through to her.  
  
He didn't know anything really about her and that's what really pissed him off. He had been with her almost every day since she was saved and she still kept him at arms length. Sometimes, he would see something inside of her trying to be with him and sometimes she would just pull away. He couldn't blame her. For awhile there when she thought she was going to suffer the same fate of death as she had before all she had to hold onto was herself. She hadn't had the chance to hold onto anyone else or have anyone else know what she was going through.  
  
He just wished she would get out of doing that already. She had him. He was there for her. He had let her know that and she still wasn't giving him the whole truth about what was going onside of her. Whatever it was it was a war and this was proof of it.  
  
In all the days they had been together he hadn't even seen her ever let go. She was still holding in all the pain over losing her family and she was still trying to be strong for everyone else around her. Why, he didn't know.  
  
He had been worried about her for so long. Especially when all she did was keep herself busy and closed off. She was showing everyone she was making her second chance at life a better one then her last but at the exact same time she wasn't even letting go of her last one. She had never mourned for everyone that had died on her wedding day. She had never recovered from it.  
  
Now, here she was lying in the backroom of P3 on a cot as he tried to heal her. She wouldn't be here if she wasn't constantly trying to prove to everyone that she was all better. No one was ever all better. Especially, after what had happened this very day last month.  
  
Chris had tried to let her know she didn't have to put up an act with him. He had tried to let her grieve, but she wouldn't. It was like she was trying to be superwoman. He really hated her for taking the world on her shoulders and not letting anyone else in.  
  
He wanted in. He wanted her to let him in and let her have him help her grieve. She wouldn't though. At first, he had thought it was only a matter of time. That was until she started to do everything she could to rid herself of her last life. Selling her house had been the first tip off that she hadn't hit acceptance over everything ever yet. The second had been when she had made him pack up everything in her room because she couldn't even enter it herself.  
  
It was then he knew she was hurting herself. It was then he knew she wouldn't let him in to save her. And he was pissed. He had been there, and he had saved her life. Her lives to come even. Yet she wouldn't let him see her.  
  
"_It's over now, I'm cold, alone, _

_I'm just a person on my own _

_Nothing means a thing to me _

_Nothing means a thing to me_," singer's words faded into the backroom like whiskey on the breath of a dying man.  
  
The golden glow coming from his hands drew a blanket over her limp body as he thought about everything that they had covered over the last month. Over everything that hadn't happened that should have.  
  
It was then he felt something was very, very wrong. It was then he realized he wasn't healing her like he was supposed to be doing. Instead, his powers felt like they were being rerouted into her heart and there it felt as if they were being sucked at.  
  
It almost felt as if her body was taking his powers. It was like her body wasn't being healed like he had planned but instead being reenergized with his own powers. As he realized this, it felt like her body seemed to be taking over and sucking in more of his healing powers faster and faster.  
  
"Victoria?" he whispered, worried.  
  
Victoria stood rooted in place inside of her darkly shadowed golden bedroom. The moonlight paled against her skin as she looked for the source of her fear. He was invisible. He could be anywhere, and she wouldn't ever know it. She wouldn't even see him. He had more power then she ever had had by being invisible to the world around him.  
  
"I'm not here to harm you," the voice told her as it crawled over her skin.  
  
"Do you suffer from short term memory loss? You kidnapped me, locked me in my old bedroom, and threw me onto my bed to make sure I couldn't leave." she cried.  
  
"I'm only here as a forewarning."  
  
"Say I believe you." she said, faltering on believing whatever it was inside the same room with her.  
  
"Come to the mirror." he ordered.  
  
"What, so I can see my reflection?" she asked.  
  
She almost felt like she was trapped inside of a fairy tale. The one with Snow White no less.  
  
"There are hidden truths all around you, Victoria. This is the one I choose to open your eyes to."  
  
"Great, more riddles." she muttered, doing as she was told.  
  
Victoria walked over to the mirror and stood in front of it. Nothing happened. All she saw was herself in the mirror giving an I can't believe I'm here expression. She looked deep into the crevices of the mirror to see if he was hiding somewhere in the background of her room. But found no one.  
  
The red candle appeared beside her. It's silvery-black flame came to life as she stood in front of the mirror. What she saw made her jump. There was a long black shadow all around her floating like a ghost. It slithered around her like a snake would its victim.  
  
Well, I wanted to see him. She thought as she stared at him.  
  
"Look at yourself. Look at your reflection. Pay no mind to me."  
  
"So that is you?" she asked, already knowing the answer.  
  
She turned her violet-blue eyes to the mirror.  
  
There she saw herself.  
  
She looked the same as before. She was wearing the same outfit that she had worn to the club. Her hair was out of its ponytail, but after being thrown through the air she expected that. What she hadn't expected to see was that her reflection of herself was..  
  
Well, see through. She could see everything as clear as day behind her through her body.  
  
She wiped the mirrors surface to make sure it wasn't a play of the candle's flame along with dust. Nothing came off on her hands. The mirror was perfectly fine. The reflection wasn't. She was a ghost.  
  
She was standing there and she was see through. She was like Casper. But she had been solid enough to be thrown through the air and to try to dust off the mirrors surface. So how could she be see through now?  
  
Yet she was see through.  
  
There was definitely something wrong with that.  
  
"Am I dead?" she asked the black thing floating around her like a phantom.  
  
"No, not for the time being."  
  
"Nice to know." she whispered as she looked at herself in the mirror.  
  
Perhaps it was only the mirror. Maybe it was a fun house mirror that made you look dead and he was only playing with her mind. She stepped away from the mirror and then looked down at herself.  
  
The vision of her see through self didn't stop. Through her red- black shirt, black leather skirt, and black shoes she could see the wooden floorboards beneath her feet perfectly. Victoria lifted her pale white arm up into the moonlight and gulped down a few thousands gallons of air as she saw the mirror and her half there self doing the same thing through her hand.  
  
Oh, god. Oh, god. Something is wrong with me. I shouldn't really be here. This isn't right. I'm not dead. She kept thinking over and over again as she drew away from the mirror.  
  
She searched for some answer but found none. The black shadow she had seen in the mirror wasn't anywhere around her. She grabbed thing that she could throw at the mirror which happened to be a lamp and threw it straight at the mirror. There the glass fragments flew everywhere in the room and scattered tinkling over the wooden floorboards.  
  
If the mirror wasn't there then she wasn't see through. She had only seen herself as a ghost after she had looked into the mirror. So perhaps it was just the mirror enchanting her. If she destroyed the mirror then she was good. She'd be whole again and she would be alive. She tried to reason.  
  
Cruel laughter filled the air around her as she walked backwards. She hit the beds frame and held tightly to it as she searched for the voice.  
  
"Stop playing mind games with me." she warned angrily as she felt the electricity bolts shooting over her hands from her uncontrolled power.  
  
"I am only showing you the future of Christmas to come."  
  
"Right, well last time I checked I am not an overly cynical balding soulless old man named Scrooge so take it away."


	6. Bring Me To Life

Okay, I am sorry for being away. I promise I will have a whole bunch of chapters updated for the next few days unless my computer dies or something. Otherwise, they will be here. So, in the meantime please review so I can get an idea whether or not everyone who read the last story or who are reading this one are getting it so far. Plus, I would love to get feedback on how the transition of Victoria's character is being taken. You know from tough bitch to kinda nice person.

Also, so I don't feel very foolish with only have 7 reviews.

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"Why did you bring me here? And where is exactly is here because this doesn't exist anymore."

"Here is the moment in time where you were your most alive. Here is only a moment in time. It is the first moment you had where you knew the truth." he told her in a deep echoing voice.

She shivered as he said it. She knew what he was talking about. It wasn't true. She could not possibly be what she had thought of herself as in one moment of pure gothic thinking. He was trying to play with her mind and she wasn't going to let it work. She was stronger then this.

If he wanted to screw with her it would take a lot more then words.

"Who are you?" she whispered in a raw voice.

"You're not ready to know that yet." the voice whispered right beside her ear this time.

She didn't move. She knew he wouldn't let her see him. She would turn her head and find nothing behind her. She might as well be blind for how well her luck was helping her tonight.

"When will I be ready to know?" she asked in a cold voice.

"You know that's what I always liked about you." he told her. He let his words hang in the air a moment and then he added, "You always knew the right questions to ask. Most people would say it was their time, or they would try to strike out a deal . Some would denounce me and believe they were going insane or else just say they would never have that time. You, I like you."

"Gee, thanks. Perhaps we can go out for coffee sometime and talk deep mythological talks." she replied bitterly. She sank down onto her old mattress and stared at the shards of glass everywhere on the floor. "Until then, why bring me here? All you really are doing is toying with me. If you like me so much... hell if you know me so well you should know I can't take this crap anymore then the next witch."

"You are more then a witch."

"So I've been told," she muttered.

Sure, they said her mother had been tricked by a god. Sure, she had slept with him and that could explain a lot about herself . Like the fact that her eyes were her own and no one else in her family had the same eyes, it could explain the advanced powers she had so young, and it could explain why a lot of demons had been taken with her as of late.

What it didn't explain was how her mother had let it happen. Her mother had been a powerful psychic so why wouldn't she have seen it coming? Why hadn't she stopped herself from sleeping with a god?

The only answer Victoria had gotten after pummeling the dark wall of unknowing was the fact that her mother had known all along. Her mother, the all seeing psychic related to the Crone, had seen it coming and had still done it just so she could have the fabled baby.

Leo had hinted to her many a time after he had announced to everyone that she was part god that her had seen the future of her. He had hinted to her that the Elders saw her future interlinked with the Charmed Ones doing great good and saving millions.

What Leo hadn't prophesized was the fact that she didn't want to. Sure, if someone came into her path and she could save them she would, but otherwise she had never wanted to leave the dramatically die once a week to save an innocent life. She wanted to be left alone. She wasn't prepared to have the weight of the world on her shoulders. She wasn't prepared to hear about the great future the Elders were celebrating with her in it. All she had wanted to do as of late was run away and get the hell out of the Elders radar so she could do her own thing.

Of course, if she did that she would never be able to see Chris again. He was the only one tying her down to leaving her destiny and running for the next plane of existence. As long as he was here she wasn't going anywhere.

"More then a god. You have something that others will never have." the voice informed her.

"Pray tell what could possibly make me more then a witch and more then a god because I am dying to know." she responded with a slight laugh that ended in a sigh.

"You have a connection to life as well as to death."

She knew that one already.

No matter how well she knew that the curse had been destroyed she had never been able to get rid of the feeling that death was still on her heels. Instead of mourning for her fallen family and friends like everyone seemed to be expecting of her she had been trying to keep the feeling away. She had tried so hard to believe that she was only overreacting and that her nerves were still fried from her experience in Limbo, but she couldn't fool herself for long.

She couldn't sleep at night because of the feeling. She always felt it whether it was in the back of her head or surrounding her like she felt it now. She hated it. She knew Death was still on her heels trying to find the best time to come in and have a real good day.

She wanted death to leave her alone. She had beat him and she wanted him to get over that fact and go kill of old people who had lived their life and were ready to die. She knew he wouldn't though.

She just wanted to be left alone. She knew that would never happen now. She had been a secret to most agents of evil up until now. Now, all they did was try to destroy her for her powers or else they tried to convert her to their side so they could tip the scales on good.

Sometimes she wanted to just let them have her. Sometimes, at night when she couldn't sleep and she felt like death was watching over her she just wanted to let it all go. Sometimes she felt like ending it already.

Sometimes she didn't think she was supposed to still be existing on this plane and that she was an intruder to everything. Sometimes she wondered if it would have been better if she had died because of the curse then staying here knowing she should be dead, that she had cheated death, and that every new day was stolen. She was a stranger in this world and it was no longer friendly to beggars who stole time while saints died in the meantime of their theft.

"Well, I'd rather just keep the my lifeline on the phone and take out the telemarketer for death." she told the invisible man softly.

The voice didn't answer her in the darkness. It only laughed at her feeble attempt to disregard what was going on around her. Whoever this being was he knew her better then she liked him to admit. He also knew a few things about her that even she tried to keep locked up inside of herself. She hated him for knowing her.

"You'll figure this all out soon enough." he whispered in her ear. She didn't bother to look to her side she knew she wouldn't see him.

She felt odd for a moment. She felt like she as being pulled in every direction at the exact same time. Her vision faded in and out and her body felt like it was expanding for no reason. Through her minds eye she felt light in the darkness, she heard muffled music, she heard a voice calling her back to him, and she felt a warm glowing over her stomach.

Chris. Something had happened and he needed her back with him. He always needed her. She needed him, but the longer she had him the more she knew she was taking him for granted.

She looked down at herself in her old bedroom to see her body glowing. A strong golden flame was spreading over her stomach and passing itself through her veins. As it did it, she started to be real again. She was no longer see through. She was real again. She was solid and human and not a ghost. She looked up and smiled at the bedroom in satisfaction.

She had bested the thing stalking her somehow. She was going to get away from him and his eerie questions and awkward answers. She was going back to her body in her own reality.

As she realized this, she opened her violet-blue eyes to see Chris hovering above her. His hands were pulled together over her stomach and the golden glow was trailing through her body. He had healed her.

She didn't remember getting hurt at all. She didn't remember anything except leaning against him as she spoke with Piper. She didn't remember being attacked by any evil or even being unconscious, but here she was waking up.

She looked around herself and saw the backroom of P3. She was lying on the slightly lumpy mattress in the room. Why there was a mattress was beyond her, but for now she was happy for it since she was lying on the floor or the rock hard desk.

She was alive. She was okay and she was with Chris. Right now, that was a happy welcoming to where she had just been. Even now she started to feel as if she was going a bit crazy. It had to have been a dream. Perhaps, she was only being haunted by the act that her family deserved to be mourned. Maybe, it was just her subconscious telling her that by making her a ghost.

Maybe, she was just plain crazy.

Or maybe, something new was after her and had a way to get inside of her mind and screw around with her.

"Hey, are you okay?" Chris asked giving her a small smile as he stared into her eyes in worry.

"Yeah, I think so." she told him as she laid on the cot looking up at him.

"Are you sure? You scared me... well us" Chris asked, running a hand through her dark reddish-brown hair feverishly. His forehead scrunched up a little bit in worry as he looked over every inch of her face to see if anything else was really wrong.

"Don't worry about me." she responded trying to slit her eyes away from the bright light above their heads. After beginning complete darkness it was starting to hurt her eyes.

"Alright, then if you're okay now you'll be perfectly capable enough to tell me what the hell that was! Because that just wasn't nothing so don't even write it off as if it was. So you had better tell me everything without leaving anything out and without your cryptic answers that you love to give. This is important and I damn well deserve to know what the hell my girlfriend has been up to to make her faint out of no where like that! Well? What hell just happened to you?" Chris cried in sudden anger that instantly replaced his worry over her.

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Stony Angel: I know this is a bit forever later in response. I have been a bit busy and writer's blocked so forgive me. Victoria, wow, she is complex. I don't want you to get the idea she is out to get Chris away from his family. When I wrote that chapter I intially thought it was more of a backup of showing how well Victoria was getting along with Piper so far so that you'd know the family was trying to take her in. I also wanted to show how Chris was in love with her. Of course, after looking over it I can see how you could take it another way, but don't. I didn't intend for my story to go in that direction. A zillion other directions, but not that one. So, have your faith restored in the family being top priority.


	7. Alone I Breathe

"Alright, then if you're okay now you'll be perfectly capable enough to tell me what the hell that was! Because that just wasn't nothing so don't even write it off as if it was. So you had better tell me everything without leaving anything out and without your cryptic answers that you love to give. This is important and I damn well deserve to know what the hell my girlfriend has been up to to make her faint out of no where like that! Well? What hell just happened to you?" Chris cried in sudden anger that instantly replaced his worry over her.

He couldn't believe that she was just writing this off as if it were nothing. She was just acting like she was fine and that nothing had happened. He wasn't about to let her get away with that.

Maybe if they were different people that didn't have the supernatural always stalking them down to destroy or convert them maybe just maybe he wouldn't be overreacting about this. Of course, he had to overreact because she was barely even reacting at all. Except, of course, if you considered her annoyance at being under the third degree any form of reacting.

If they were different and normal this wouldn't be so bad. If they were normal were the key words here. They weren't and they never would be. It wasn't apart of their fate.

They weren't normal and they had to overreact to these things. They had to find the reason for their weaknesses or else they might as well be dead.

Chris had known when he had first saw Victoria that evening that she was even more beautiful then usual.He'd also felt like she was tired or something by a few small sublte movements she had done. He'd tried to write it off like she was doing now. He had just wanted tonight to be perfect so he had tried to ignore the fact that she had been acting slightly off of her game.

It had been their first night out that was without magic. It was teh first night since they had met that they could even try to enjoy everything like normal people did. Of course, here they were now in the backroom of P3. Here they were and Chris was worried about her and she was acting like nothing had happened even though it did.

She didn't let people into her world easily. She barely even wanted others to see her emotions it was like she wanted everyone to believe she was subhuman or something. He didn't understand why she was doing that. He didn't understand why she was like that.

He knew that everyday they almost died. He knew that everyday they had to be on the defensive side in order to survive all the inconstant demon attacks, but he didn't understand why she had to be like this with him.

She was such a martyr. Even now she was trying to act like nothing was happening just so she could get him to enjoy the night.

But he knew something was wrong.

Deep down he had always known that there was still something wrong and something off about her. She had been like this since the time she had come home from Limbo. She had never really gotten over that night and she had never really told him what had happened in between the time evil past life Wyatt had taken her and the time he had shown up.

Even now she still acted.. Haunted. It was like she was still haunted by it. Whatever it was. For all the time she had spent just trying to get everyone to belive she was okay and that she had moved on she had always still been haunted by something. She had never voiced it to him and he doubted she expected him to know this about her, but he did.

Whatever it was it was effecting her more then he wanted it to. She shouldn't just have fainted like that there in the club. She had been perfectly fine one moment and then the next she was unconscious. Not to mention the fact that she had lied to them about being okay before she had passed out. He had barely enough time to catch her before she had fallen to the floor and was hurt even worse.

The worst thing about the whole situation was the fact that for awhile there he hadn't been able to save her. She hadn't been attainable to him and she hadn't been receptive to his powers. It had been the worst five minutes of his life to know he couldn't reach her even if he wanted to.

He had thought she was going to die.

For five minutes that had seemed to last an eternity, he hadn't known what was really happening to him. His powers were working they had been spreading over her body and he had tried to bring her back to him. He had been healing her somehow and then a moment later he had felt like his magic was dwindling. Almost like it had been slowly sucked at as he tried to heal her.

He had felt like something was trying to take his magic to heal her and was using it for its own purpose. It had felt like a black hole had been sucking at his magic and for awhile there he hadn't been able to stop feeding whatever it was that had been taking his magic from him.

He didn't want to think about it right now, but he had a feeling that something was very wrong with Victoria, and she was trying to deal with it on her own.

Which didn't seem to be working really well for the simple fact that she had just fainted out of no where. Also, there had been the time interval where he hadn't been able to heal her or bring her back to him. That was the biggest dilemma of the moment and if she wasn't going to tell him about it freely then he sure as hell was going to get it out of her.

"I wish I knew, but I don't Chris." she tried to tell him as she looked into his forest green eyes that turned into a deep emerald color as she did.

No. There was no way she was just going to get by with that lame ass answer. He hadn't saved her from a curse, from her evil insane ex, and from death for her to start lying to him now. He deserved a hell of a lot more from her then that. He deserved some semblance of the truth.

"No way. There is no way in hell you are going to get out of this one with that lame ass attempt at an answer. Don't lie to me and stop trying to protect me, Tora. I want to know what happened to you." he told her as he threw out his nickname for her in the process. He didn't want her to feel like he was just attacking her. He just wanted to know why she had just fainted, been unattainable to him, and then was trying to protect him like he needed protected. He didn't need protected. Right now she did and he needed to know why.

He was only inches away from her and she could tell his rage was building. When she didn't answer him straight away he got up and started pacing around in the room. He was angry she had scared him when she had fainted. Hell, she had scared herself.

There hadn't been any evil attempts at her life visible to him so now he wanted to know what was going on. He wasn't stupid and he wasn't going to let up on her till he knew the truth. He was stubborn as hell and he wasn't going to let her off easily until he knew everything he needed to know.

Hell, she didn't even know the truth. For the past few days she had been tired. That was that. She accepted being tired since she couldn't sleep at night because of all the dreams of death and Andrew haunting her. When she did sleep something always happened like a new demon popping up after one of them or the Charmed Ones were calling for her help so that she could meet up with them to vanquish it, or another apocalypse was about to occur.

It wasn't like she could just request a day off like normal people.

She was basically screwed when it came to stuff like that. She just tagged along with them on the vanquishes and helped out when she was needed. Which basically was a lot sometimes when the demons now a days seemed to have new more improved ways to get through the Charmed Ones powers while they tried to defeat them.

No matter what one of them was always harmed. Sometimes she wondered why they went through it every day. She wondered if they had a death wish or something because the whole taking care of the world while the Elders sat perched up there in the sky really wasn't doing it for her. She was tired of being their lackey. She was slowly becoming more and more resentful towards them for thinking they were all that when they really didn't do shit but push paper weight around and then make the Charmed Ones lives ten times harder.

"Chris.." she tried, looking around the room in an attempt to figure out what to say or hell how to even word it. She didn't really need him worrying about her or giving her an interrogation at the moment.

Right now she was starting to feel very shaky and disgustingly sick and she didn't want to be in the same room with him while she was like this. She didn't know what really was happening to her so she really didn't want to hurt him if it were something that could hurt him. Which, if it was supernatural, it would hurt him.

"Nope, you aren't getting out of this one. I am not letting you leave this room until you tell me. So, you'd better start talking." he informed her as he folded his arms over his chest.

"Look, I have been a little stressed out lately, okay. So I fainted. So what? Case closed. Why are you making such a big deal out of this?" she asked, annoyed at the interrogating as she sat up.

Instantly, she hated herself for the instant movement because the room around her spung until she realized she had somehow fallen off the cot. Chris was beside her in an instant, holding onto her dizzy self, and looking at her with dark green eyes as he searched hers for an answer to why she was reacting this way.

She shook her head and pushed him away. She didn't need him to baby-sit her. She loved him but she didn't need him worrying about anything else going on with her. He had already had enough to worry about with his family, and the every day saving the world thing. She didn't want to be another chore for him like saving the world was. She just wanted him to give her space.

She just wanted space because she felt crazed right now. She felt like an addict and she didn't want to be close to him. She didn't want to hurt him because more then ever she was slowly starting to feel like she was in a very deliriously hot sauna and she needed out. Her thoughts were even becoming more foggy like they did when she didn't rest enough and she was in dire need of knowing she wasn't going to end up harming him if something happened.

"_Free me, leave me,_

_Watch me as I'm going down_

_Free me, see me_

_Look at me, I'm falling and I'm falling_." the lead singer of Red Helter sang in the background as the words floated over Victoria.

He was pissed because she wasn't answering his questions. So, what did he think she was? She didn't know the answers. All she knew was one minute she had been in P3 and the next she was inside her old house with a cryptic phantom holding her mind captive.

She didn't know any answers that he wanted. She barely understood anything at all. She just wanted a moment to be able to let things settle in. She needed time for her brain as well as her tired and slightly shaky feeling body to figure things out without getting the third degree.

"Well, in case you haven't noticed there still are people alive who do care about you. So when you lie to us and then seconds later go comatose we tend to get a little pissed off at you for doing the lying." he told her as he held onto her.

She was leaning into him barely being able to move in her shakiness and he was holding onto her as if his life depended on it. His hand was touching her face as his gaze seared into her. "Especially, me, your boyfriend, who you should be telling everything since there is that tiny little fact that I am your boyfriend."

If only it were that easy.


	8. Betrayl Is A Symptom

Okay, I will admit that this story hasn't had enough action in it. I've been trying to show how everyone is and what has happened in the last month so I am sorry if it has been a bit repetitious. However, this is the beginning of all the drama. So here you go....

By the way, I'm completely cool with constructive critism when it is constructive...Not when some dumbass that can't write proper english worth a damn says my story is "whack". Please... Yeah, I just can't help being slightly annoyed by this person but then I have to laugh my ass off when they said "whack" and also when their name is WOUTWAX...

Wow.. Anyways, sorry WOUTWAX if you don't like my story. Perhaps you never read the first one so don't understand what's going on in this one. I don't know. Your opinion counts, but only when it is a mature one. Oh, check out one of the articles by K'ARTHUR. He does reviews on stories and he tells you what to say or not to say in the review. I believe by his standards you got a negative 100 score on yours. Besides, why would you read every chapter and then review. Why not just saw you don't like it in the beginning instead of wasting your time reading a story you don't even enjoy or understand?

Oh well. Venting over.. On with the show.

==============================================

The last few chords of "Not An Addict" flew through the air as Norxous entered P3.

Here was a wasteland of life. A human wasteland. Here was the "in" place where humans decided they could get liquored up and enjoy music. This was their small vacation away from home. He looked around the crowded night club in disgust.

Humans, who needed them? They wreaked of humanity and morals that no one in the Underworld let alone most of the natural world even cared to use anymore to guide them through their lives. Here it was disgusting. They were drunk and disordered and easy to prey upon.

He liked a good chase when it came to humans. He liked to screw around with their minds, give them their greatest desires brought to life, and then he liked to pick them slowly off the face of existence. He didn't like the sleazy ones who were easy to hunt. He liked a challenge.

Oh, it had only been two days since he had last done it but now he wished he could. Of course that was why he was there. He had a little picking off the face of reality to do with one specific demon.

His ex go to minion, Conrad, had double-crossed him. Norxous had hired him to help him get to the Charmed Ones. There was news that a new player was in town with them and he really wanted to know who. He knew that Conrad could shape shift and so he had hired him to shape shift into one of the members of the family or one of the lovers. Whoever he didn't care. All he had wanted was to know who that player was. It seemed everyone in town wanted this newbie to the Charmed Ones and he wanted to know why.

Hell, he wanted to know who.

It seemed that the longer the Charmed Ones stayed alive the longer the demonic spies that had been set up to watch over them seemed to disappear. Some were of course vanquished but others.. They decided for some reason that they were going to maintain their distance. That barely ever happened. So, the only reason Norxous had figured out was that the new ally of the Charmed Ones made them indestructible and everyone was heading for the high hills because of it.

Of course, Norxous didn't care about danger. He risked his life every time he played with an innocent just so he could experience the thrill. What he had up his sleeve now was to convert their new ally to his side. Perhaps then good and evil would be equal again instead of this unsteady balance that always seemed to favor the Charmed Ones. Then, he could get a nights rest.

So, Norxous stood beside the alcove of the club. It was the reserved spot for the Charmed family. Right now none of them were there except for the half breed. Norxous hissed and flew back into the shadows at the sight of the twice blessed half breed.

There he was. He was just sitting there enjoying his little time at his mommy's cool night club watching the singer perform her little song as if he were in love with her. As if she would be able to keep him satisfied. Only power would keep someone so blessed satisfied.

There had been rumors about a triangle romance between the two brothers. Maybe, this girl was the one he was looking for. Maybe, he thought as he looked from Wyatt's eyes to the direction they rested on.

She was pretty, petite, and blond. The all American Barbie. He looked over her letting in her essence to see if this was the one that could create a beautiful world filled with chaos and wanton neglect of good.

It didn't take long to receive his answer. It wasn't her. He frowned at the being on the stage annoyed. She was just another dumb human leftover. He moved into the shadows of the alcove more as he watched the half breed watch her.

Power was attracted to power. If the rumors were true about the triangle romance then maybe just maybe he could use that against the two brothers. Then, the prodigies of the future would separate and maybe then if they still both wanted the one who would ensue chaos on the world then they would join her.

Of course the real Charmed Ones, the sisters, they might make a problem. Nothing that he couldn't handle though.

Nothing he couldn't handle once he had his powers back.

Which was the main reason that he was here.

Conrad had taken something very important from him and now he was here to get it back. Conrad had taken his powers, and without them he was as helpless as a newborn baby. Norxous wouldn't let him get away with it. He had had revenge before and he would serve it cold on the demon who had double crossed him.

He nodded over to his little minions. To mere humans they looked like any normal set of twins with red hair and blue crystalline eyes. Underneath their façade they were his hunting dogs.

He had brought them out on the town for a little night of fun and anarchy to ensue. Their names were Rake, and Raja and here was the perfect place to set them loose. With all the little back stories playing around the Charmed Ones they wouldn't even notice a few guys escorting their drunken friend outside into the alley.

Conrad may have come here thinking that since it was so packed, so loud, and filled with so many smells that his hunting dogs wouldn't find him. Of course, what he didn't know would hurt him. Tonight was going to be a crazy night on the town.

Norxous smiled as his hunting dogs descended into the crowd. His little minions. They were dumber then rocks and worked for their food alone so he would never have to think about them trying to double cross him. For being his hunting dogs they had extreme strength, were very well trained in the arts of concealing who they were, and also they both had the special skill of being able to stun anyone or anything that got in their way.

Conrad didn't even have a prayer.

Conrad had better be nice to his little puppies or else he would be brutally maimed. Norxous had tried hard to train his little pets, but sometimes they would break habit especially if Conrad did something to make one of them angry.

In the past, he'd only received toes, fingers, or elbows when he'd requested an audience with a betrayer. Now, he had rid them of that pesky habit of only bringing the leftovers home. Now, they were house broken except for once in a blue moon since sometimes his hunting dogs brought his betrayers back not all in one piece, but at least they were alive. It didn't matter if they were bleeding to death or not because at least now they were alive.

This time Norxous hoped that his pets got the chance to have a little fun with him. He wanted to know that they had tortured him, and then he would add on his own form of torture by showing Conrad exactly what it means to watch the people you love die helplessly because of you.

Then, maybe he would feel a little bit better about being powerless for the hour it took to find and get Conrad back.

Of course, maybe not.

Maybe he would slowly let Conrad heal then he would just repeat the process of torture all over again. Maybe he would make it a game for his faithful puppies and he'd let them chase Conrad down and kill him off. We'll, see where my mood takes me Norxous thought with a crooked grin spreading over his face.

He watched his dogs follow Conrad's scent as he glared into the darkly lit club. A few people bumped past him and for a moment he felt like releasing their worst nightmares on them.

He would give them the chance to have whatever their dear little corrupted human hearts wished for. Oh they would be happy.. Until their heartfelt wishes destroyed them. Oh, how he missed his powers.

Oh, how he wouldn't mind using them on the Charmed Ones right now. Just to get the evil community back into business, but now his asshole minion had to go about behind his back and betray him.

Even as he thought of how fun it would be to hurt the Charmed Ones when they least expected it he saw the oldest one. Piper Halliwell was just standing there in front of the bar all alone and so close he could just take a few steps and touch her. She was very pregnant and very worried over something.

Oh, how nice it would be to see her die. How nice it would be to see her wonderful magic filled wannabe ordinary life become filled with complete madness. Before, of course, she died of her own heartfelt natural causes.

He wished for the fight with every ounce of evil in his body. With his powers it would be a fair fight. Even if he died during it just to be able to know he had destroyed the leading Charmed One would be enough for him.

His first kill had been a powerful witch. Jenna, her name had been. She had been like the eldest Halliwell. She had tried to blend in as well as be ordinary in the world along with killing demons on the side. In the end, her heartfelt wish to be normal destroyed her just as it would Piper Halliwell's if he ever had the chance to get his powers back and spread a little love into the world.

Oh, it would be divine to see the end of her life.

He couldn't wait.

With the end of her life the Charmed Ones powers would falter. They would no longer be so strong in the face of evil. They could be taken one by one until they were all dead. Even the half breed enjoying the show right now would be dead without any hope in the world let alone anyone left to save him from the evil that would take his life.

Either that or he would become evil.

Everything was fair in the world of good and evil. Love didn't exist in that parallel either.

He leered at the eldest Halliwell as he stood in the alcove's shadows. She must have felt someone's eyes on her because she turned in his direction. Her doe brown eyes searched the shadows and found his. Then, she seemed to realize who if not what he was and what he had in mind.

Before she could do anything about it her middle sister, Phoebe, came rushing up to her and popped into the picture while crating a diversion from him.

Norxous turned away from the siblings reunion and turned back into his own business for the time being. Another time perhaps, he promised silently. He turned his eyes towards the crowd to find his hunting dogs searching it. It didn't take long for him to spot them slithering through the crowd in hot pursuit of Conrad.

Soon he'd have his revenge, soon he'd have his powers back, and soon he would pay a nasty game with the oldest Charmed One.

Once, she fell so would the rest of the family.

"Checkmate," he whispered to the living shadows around him with his black eyes glowing.

His dogs had picked up Conrad's rat smell and now they were after him. Norxous watched as his betrayer walked through the crowd quickly trying to get away from Norxous's dogs. He had seen them and now he was trying to get away, but it wouldn't be that easy. Not in this crowd on this night.


	9. Chances Are

Conrad had known Norxous would be on his coattails pretty quickly. However he had never expected Norxous to bring his infamous hunting dogs Rake and Raja with him.

Rake and Raja were two of the most ugliest demonic minions type things when they were all dawdled up like humans. Their red hair was curled and flared at the edges and made them look like Medusa's very sons. Their eyes, on the other hand, were a white blue color that could freak out anyone looking at them. It just didn't even seem like they were even there in the first place.

Besides, when one looked into those very eyes they say no emotion just trained bloodlust. So, Conrad had tried his best to stay away from those two as much as possible. It was easier to be sneaky that way and he didn't have to watch his back the whole time.

He had tried to go somewhere public so that he could mess with the crowd. All he needed was time. Only time could give him the chance to do what he had planned to do in the first place.

So, when he had wanted something public and then seen P3. He had thought what a freaking miracle. So, he had entered into the sanctified world of the Charmed Ones. Sure, he was not at all welcome on their "holy" moral grounds, but he was there now.

When he had first entered the place he had expected them to know he was there already and just vanquish his sorry butt. But no, they didn't appear to kill him they just stayed in their own area doing their own thing.

He was happy about that one. However, another strange thought that had entered his mind when he had entered the club was that maybe they had some kind of gargoyle or something there to magical proof the area and warn them of impending danger. If they did it would be screaming murder once he stepped one foot into the entrance.

Of course, there was no gargoyle.

He was home free. However, he wanted to mention to them that they could save themselves a lot of trouble if they magic proofed their place of residence as well as their club. Of course, they were the almighty Charmed Ones. Perhaps they got their kicks from unexpected attacks and near death avenging.

In that case, they all needed to see some medical help stat because no one was that stupid and or that crazy.

Of course, there was the chance that they did magic proof this place and he couldn't see it. Perhaps it only went off with higher level demons. In that case he was off the list for about another year and also he just wasn't evil enough.

Which he agreed with completely.

He wasn't all evil. He thought that sometimes anyways. He just really liked to do evil things to demons and other evil magical beings.

Sure he had a lot of evil notions. He wasn't about to say he didn't plan on killing a few masses every once in a china blue moon but heck he really liked the thrill of getting one over the people he worked for more then anything at all.

Call it a need to strike back at his boss. Call it an authority issue or problem, but he had it. Whenever he could find a way to sneak in and get one over the big guy he sure as heck did it. Oh, and if he might say so himself, he did it well. Better well actually. He was the main squeeze when it came to getting one over the big guy.

So, when Norxous the mighty had beckoned unto him he had no other choice but to go and do his bidding. A large grin spread of Conrad's slightly cavity ridden teeth as he walked through the murky crowd and tried to maintain his distance from Norxous.

He was a chameleon by thanks to his twin brother. By all means, he could do whatever he wanted. For truly, he wasn't at all who he seemed to be.

He was actually Conrad's little brother out for a picnic of powers.

Since, a baby he had been able to borrow others powers while his brother had the gift of being a chameleon and being able to change how he looked at a seconds notice. So, when his older twin brother by five minute had died in his arms late last spring he had decided that he wanted to be his brother Conrad.

He basically was already.

They had been twins at birth. They never had been identical though because somehow Conrad had been born with silver hair and he, himself, had born with black hair. Then there were the dimples his brother had that he didn't and the scar above his upper lip that he had and that his brother never had acquired so sure a few things were different on them, but now he was Conrad.

Sometimes it was exhilarating and sometimes it was just plain hell.

You see now he had the power or the ability, whatever you would like to call it, to steal other powerful beings powers. All he had to do was touch them and they were his own. The very magical being that he was "borrowing" from wouldn't even know what was happening until it was too late.

So, it was ten times nicer that Conrad had the ability to change what he looked like in any dire situation especially when he died and had given him the power of being a chameleon to himself.

If that's what one wanted to call it.

The greatest thing about this power also was the fact that once a power was borrowed if it wasn't liked or say needed it could easily be bestowed upon someone else. In this very crowded, overpopulated nightclub Conrad was going to find the perfect person to throw this curse on and then he would leave.

If he didn't have the powers that Norxous so desperately wanted then Norxous wouldn't kill him till he found out where they were. He would never tell him so Norxous would just be screwed and doomed to live an eternity powerless. Poor baby.

He hoped that he could figure a way out of the place on his own without Norxous's dogs following him. He kind of doubted that, but for now he didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

The crowd engulfed him and for a moment he found a chance to take a breath. Of course, the song the band performing in front of him ended. He didn't know how he had done it, but he had been pushed towards the front of the crowd to the very feet of the lead singer.

She was very pretty barefoot petite blond girl. She was in a pair of regular bell bottomed pants in a retro style with a plain white tank top that had red glittered designs fraying the bottom of it and trailing around the arms. Her long blond hair was falling down her back in spiraling curls and she barely wore any makeup. She didn't need to.

Conrad was about willing to say no to the whole magical kick just for a little time with her. He smiled and rubbed his chin as he watched her. She had complete confidence in herself. He could tell she was little bit spoiled though.

He could change that.

"Alright, thank you everyone who came out here tonight. We are Red Helter and we're gone." she cried into the microphone.

A loud massive uproar of cheering came from the crowd in front of her as he watched her back up a few feet from the microphone she had abandoned and she smiled in thanks and did a quick bow. Then, she started to help with the bands members as they started to pack up to leave the nightclub.

Conrad had one thing in mind now. Sure it wasn't the nice little vacation a moment ago he had been planning for himself and her. It was plain as day. She would be the perfect choice not to say the easiest of choices of people to infect with the stolen powers.

Sure they would eventually kill her. No mere human had ever, ever, ever been able to survive the case of an infection, but did he really care? Nope. Not when he was getting rid of the burden that was having to very big, ugly killer dogs after him, and an insanely pissed off demon.

Yeah, this would be for the best.

The poor girl would suffer horribly after quite some time. Of course, this would mean that that whole rendezvous was out now that he had been planning between them.

Tough luck for her.

Oh well. There were millions of girls in the world. All he had to do was infect one and find another.

Besides, he never really had preferred blonds anyway.


	10. The Meddling Idiot

Yeah i know its been like forever but college is starting up soon i am doing the whole two job thing. i am looking at apartments to live in for the second semester and i am dealing with a bigass amount of my people actaully finally joining the ranks of college. geez oh man.

==================================================

He walked to the stage. Time was running out. He walked straight up to her and cleared his throat to get her attention.

There was barely anyone still there so she was perfectly able to hear him.

Everyone was getting out of the club and onto their own lives all over again. They wouldn't bother noticing one over excited fan going to speak with the singer of one of the most popular bands in town at this moment.

Too bad, of course, this meant that that very band wouldn't be popular for long. Short lived fame. One hit wonders. Where had they gone to would be the thing people who would remember this night fondly would wonder. No one would ever know the real answer.

First, he was going to infect her with demonic powers. Then, those powers would destroy her slowly. At first, she would barely notice then her mind would scatter a bit and then her body would start to kill itself. Humans had never accepted demonic powers in their bodies well. She wouldn't be the successful one.

Along with her body slowly killing itself, Norxous would be after her. He would realize what Conrad had done and then he would go after her and kill her off. Then, he would take his rightful powers for himself. All would be well in the demon world again and Conrad would have shifted into another human being and would never be caught by Norxous.

She turned to see who it was behind her clearing his throat and saw him. He saw an expression of complete indifference towards him cross her face, but then she rethought whatever had caused that feeling. She didn't know who he was, but she seemed to expect him to be a fan so she came to the end of the stage to stand above him.

"Hi." she replied nervously.

Obviously she wasn't used to fans coming up to her and talking with her like this. He smiled at her. He made sure his teeth didn't show because he didn't want her to get carried away by the repulsing look of his teeth. As he did he stared at her black chipped toenail polish on her toes.

He had a feeling that she was the type of person who wholly went for outward appearances and not the insides of people. Damn prep, he thought. It would be her downfall. His smile widened without exposing his teeth yet as she bent down to hear what he had to say to her.

He looked up at her where she was knelt two inches above him on the stage. Her clear blue eyes looked down into his and her long dirty blond hair cascaded around her in what seemed like rays of light. She was waiting for him to speak to her.

She didn't know what to expect from him and she wanted to finish what she had been doing before. He had sensed that as he watched her. A few other movements showed that she wanted to get this over and done with because she felt wired around him. Even now, she could tell he was alittle off with his intentions about her.

That was fine. Let her be weirded out by him a little. He knew that a few nice compliments thrown into the conversation would start her on his side of things. He knew by then he would be able to sneak in his touch to the whole meeting and then she would be done for. All because he could transfer the stolen powers of Norxous's that he was hording right now and no one would be the wiser.

She had a right to feel weird around him. He was her death. She was entertaining death right now and she didn't even know it. Poor human.

It was times likes these that made him feel just a little bit bad for humans being so damned careless in believing the world was a wonderful place that was magic free.

"You and your band did very well tonight. I especially loved your last song." he told her.

She smiled a little more at ease now that she knew he was only a fan and not a stalker. Then she answered as she flipped her hair back with a curt wave of her hand, "I hope everyone enjoyed it."

She watched as the crowd started to thin out around them. Of course, everyone had enjoyed the show. This would go down as a night in history for her. It would be her first sold out session and her last performance ever. She was already a legend in some of these peoples eyes.

He looked back at her band behind her to see if any of them were witnessing their conversation. They all were in their own little worlds as they past around the stage and put their instruments away. They all didn't even care about him talking to her sine they were so involved in their own littler worlds.

This was almost too easy. He could just peg victim onto her forehead and take her out back it was that easy. No one was paying attention so there were no eye witnesses, once this was over her powers that Norxous was scrying for would lead Norxous to her, and he could change his image and shift into another person completely free of the certain death he had been worried about moments before.

He knew one thing that would get her hook line and sinker to him. She would be willing to do anything once he spoke these words. Everyone wanted to be a superstar and she was willing for it to just be handed to her. She was so gullible.

"Your performance.. It was ... well, I work for a record label and you just did better then any artist I have ever signed."

He didn't know her well but he knew one thing for certain for once in his life. He should be a salesman. Because baby she just bought his story hook line and sinker. Her vivid blue eyes sparkled at the information that dizzied its way into her brain. Then she tried to play it cool in case she was getting ahead of herself. What really was going on inside of her mind as she looked around modestly was a parade. He could see it. A parade and thousands of fans throwing money at her left and right.

The best thing he had ever said in his life was what he had just uttered. Even now as he watched her her eyes glittered and shone in excitement. Hell, she thought she was getting her lucky break . Poor thing she was only going to get her death sentence by talking with him right now.

"Really?" she asked. "I guess you haven't seen the best yet then."

"I haven't. So, I have decide I want you to be on my label. You think you can do that?" he asked her knowing full well inside her mind she was already a billionaire.

She looked like she was going to cry for joy. Instead, she jumped up and down on the stage. She was cute and bubbly for that five seconds. For a moment, he almost felt bad for what he was about to do.

She stopped bouncing and hugged herself giggling. He nodded and then looked around. So far he hadn't been bothered by Norxous's dogs but soon they would find him. He just didn't want that to happen yet. So he decided to speed up the process.

He smiled and extended his hand, "Here's my business card. "

She nodded and took a breaht."Oh tahnk you thank you thank you. I can't believe this. This was like my lifelong dream and like it is so happening ing now. You won't regret this." she replied taking the card.

You will though, he thought as their fingers touched. In that instant the powers he had stolen drifted straight into her body. She was their new host. She wouldn't be alive for long with them though.

He wanted to do what she had just done. He tuned her incessant prattle as he smiled. He had done it. The curse.. Hell the burden was over. He smiled and felt like doing his own like dance around the stage but didn't instead. He looked into her sparkling ocean blue eyes and nodded.

"I have a feeling you're right about that one." he said.

She smiled brilliantly down on him. She thought he had been saying he knew she was talented. Sure she was but evading death was a talent she wouldn't have.

He was just about to end his little exchange with the idiot human when he felt it. He knew then he had to get out of there quick.

Because in that instant Norxous's to dogs had spotted him. Since there was barely anyone left and then weren't house broken they did the only thing their pea brained minds gave them as an option to do.

They had held hands together to combine their powers and in the form of an energy ball they had sent it careening at him as he stood next to the stage.

The few people still there starting shrieking. The singer of Red Helter as well as her band mates ran off stage. He felt the paneling above his head of the stage burning as the odor of fresh smoke infiltrated his nostrils. He saw the two Charmed Ones at the club rise from where they had been sitting and start to fight back to save the supposed innocents that Norxous's dogs were after. Norxous's dogs started to fight back in the chaos of running bystanders and Conrad knew he had to get the hell out of there while he still could. Which was going to be harder then he had imagined initially.

Since all hell had broken lose.


	11. Undertow

Hello all. Here we go again.

lizzie, sorry I confused you. I was just trying to get the action in and the bad guys known.

Many thanks also to shortie4283 and also Stony Angel. I emailed you, Stony Angel, under a different email from my yahoo account so hopefully you got it....................................................................

Piper took a sip of her bottled water and watched the club goers around her. A lot of them were leaving now that the band was done performing. She saw the band start to pack up and smiled in relief that the show had been so good.

"Tell me you got a c.d. of theirs." Phoebe said smiling at her.

"Yeah, I got a couple." Piper responded.

"Good. I claim one of those for myself, Missie. Because that was one awesome band that you had play." Phoebe told her smiling.

"Yeah?" Piper asked raising her eyebrows at Phoebe's good mood and smiling.

"Oh, yeah." Phoebe laughed. "Remember when you wanted to be a professional singer?"

"Oh god don't remind me."

"You kept singing Barbara Streisand and Whitney Houston stuff all day everyday and then Grams bought all of us earplugs." Phoebe giggled.

"Grams.. She kept telling me I had a better destiny then in singing in bars and imitating the top 40 singers."

"Sounds like Grams alright," Phoebe responded. As she brought her drink up in a toast. "To good old Grams. Wherever she may be in the afterlife let her be happy."

"Ditto," Piper replied as she tipped her bottled water towards Phoebe's strawberry daiquiri. "Oh, and also to Prue."

Phoebe's smile faded a little bit at the mention of Prue. Piper knew that that was still a line they needed to cross one day in order to be able to be done mourning. Maybe, she shouldn't have brought it up.

It was the anniversary of Prue's death though. It kind of needed to be brought up. Prue deserved a shout out wherever she was and where ever she had passed on to.

Prue. God, it had been forever since she'd thought of her older sister. Prue had always been the perfect one of the family. 'The overachiever with a soul', Grams had once referred to her as. Prue had always known what to do and when to do it and even how it should be done right. She'd been so powerful.

Then, Prue had been taken from them.

Piper and Prue had been in the house alone and Shax had attacked. They hadn't been prepared. They both had been near death and Leo had only had enough time to choose one of them to save. Piper had been the one he had chosen to save.

Once in awhile, Piper had to wonder what it would hade been like to have died that day. If she and Leo had never been together then Prue would have still been alive. Prue would've survived and Piper would have died.

Sometimes she knew she hadn't died because she was Leo's wife and that had biased the whole situation. As selfish as it seemed, she was happy that he had saved her. She wanted to be alive for as long as she could be alive. She wanted to see her family grow up and her children have their own families.

She had never wanted to die young like her mother had.

She snapped away from thoughts of dying and thought about Prue for a moment. Prue had been taken from them so quickly. . Shax had attacked and they hadn't had the power of three with them to save themselves. They hadn't even been prepared.

Then, Paige had entered their life. She had been a godsend as well as a problem at times.

It was nice to know that the Power of Three could be reconstituted. It was also nice to see the baby sister that she had never known about. Deep down in the beginning it had been so hard. They hadn't had time to grieve before they had had to accept a new sister into their home.

It was like Paige was replacing Prue at times and she had hated her for that.

She loved Paige now more then ever. She was her baby sister and she had to love her. It was just in the very beginning just knowing her own oldest sister who had always taken care of her and everyone else was gone. Piper had had to take on her role as the leader of the family while trying to keep sane. Then, Paige had come in as a new witch who tended to screw things up ever week.

Now, it was better between them, but before it had been hell.

"To Prue," Phoebe agreed and tipped her glass in the toast.

Piper smiled wanly and looked away from her middle sister. Only a few dozen people were still in the club. She saw a man nearing his thirties talking to the singer of Red Helter onstage. Then, she saw a business card passed into her hands. Piper was happy someone was having good luck on that day.

Then, out of the corner of her chocolate colored eyes she saw something that was off in the club.

There was a set of twins standing in the very middle of the dance floor. They had roughly went through a few people to get there and now that they were there they were searching through the small groups of people for someone. For a moment it even looked like they were sniffing something out as if they were dogs or something and could pick up a scent.

The weird looking red haired, white-blue eyed twins looked at each other silently communicating for a moment. Then, they smiled a savage smile that ripped a few shivers through Piper' body. She felt her baby kick in warning as she watched the two join hands.

Their pale white albino colored hands joined as Piper frowned. Something was definitely off in the air. Something was definitely wrong with this picture. She couldn't tell what it was at the second but she knew she would soon find out.

She slowly got to her feet. She saw a confused Phoebe look up from a sip of her drink and watch her as she moved to her feet. Piper had to see this better.

Energy balls brilliantly formed in searing white globes inside of the twins free hands. Piper gaped at them as she looked around the club. There were still so many innocents everywhere and they were just going to attack magically in front of all of them? She followed their eyes and their own aim as they threw their energy balls straight at the stage ahead of them.

The energy balls were going to slam right into the singer of Red Helter and the man with the business cards. Crap, this was almost a perfect night. Strike that it had almost been a perfect month without any demonic interruption. Until now, at least.

Piper went to freeze the energy balls before they could do any damage to anyone. Before she could though someone knocked straight into her. The pure power of being knocked off of her balance threw her straight ahead onto her side on the floor.

Her head rammed into a wooden bar stool as she did and everything went black for a moment. Then it came back and she saw the dizzy world around her.

She moaned for a moment as she laid on the floor and looked around for the source of her fall. Whoever it had been that had made her fall was no where to be found. As she looked up to find her attacker she saw all of the innocents running chaotically around the room in search of the exit. Piper didn't freeze them. They needed to get out of danger as fast as possible.

She curled in a ball as she saw a few coming her way, but in the last possible moment they ran in a different direction.

She turned her head, breathed hard so she could see through her hair piling in front of her face, and saw more energy balls flying.

The singer ran off of the stage somewhere in the back. The man talking to her threw a table as if it were made of nothing at the twins. They threw an energy ball at it that destroyed it before it could even hit them. It fell to the ground in ashes.

Phoebe came to her and helped her to her feet.

"What the hell was that?" Phoebe asked her.

"I don't know but that's exactly where they are going once I get through with them!" Piper warned as she came back onto her feet.

Another set of energy balls were thrown at the man as he ducked. Piper saw a large flame from one of the energy balls burn through the man's shirts shoulder as he patted out the flames. His eyes turned a black color as he hissed at the twins trying to kill him.

Great. For once demons are not here to vanquish us yet they are still in my club to vanquish each other. In the process of their death match they were ruining her very club. The table alone had cost her two hundred dollars. She was going to take it out on them too.

Another set of energy balls came. She froze them before they could take out the very overly expensive microphone on stage and the other one almost taking off the other demons head. He'd had enough time to duck before she could unfreeze the one to kill him off.

Dang.

If only Paige was there and could've thrown the energy balls back at the happy couple.

"Phoebe I'm guessing if they could be separated they would be powerless. So we need to separate them as soon as possible!" Piper told her sister.

"Yeah, but Piper they don't freeze!"

"Good point." Piper added.

Piper looked back at the factor that they weren't freezing as she saw their blue white eyes search for the source that had stopped their attack. They didn't have to search far to find the source. Their eyes glittered in fury when they found Piper and Phoebe standing there.

"Oh, crap." Piper whispered.

An energy ball was instantly thrown at them.

"What the hell is going on out there!?!" Chris cried as he stopped searching Victoria's eyes and went to the door.

From the cot the sounds of war came into the room. A table breaking and energy balls being thrown and destroying things pounced off of the walls as Chris went to the door.

Victoria had herd it too but she wasn't ready to go out there and save people yet. She felt dizzy and weak still and she barely thought she could make it up. Her being out here in the center of the chaos would be certain death.

Chris went to the door and looked out to see energy balls flying, people running, and demons fighting each other.

Mom. She needed his help.

"Victoria" he said as he turned back to her.

He didn't want to leave her alone in there like this. There was definitely something wrong with her. She was getting weaker with every moment that passed. If a demon came in here she would be helpless. Yet his mother needed help.

"Go," was all Victoria said to him.

He met her hard blue-violet eyes and nodded. She knew he needed to save his family. She wasn't gong to stand in his way either.

He gulped down a breath of air and then rushed back to her. He pressed her reddish brown hair down and looked into her eyes. "Just stay here alright. You're safer in here."

"Fine," she responded.

He nodded again. Then he kissed her cold forehead and ran out of the backroom and into the chaos.


	12. 96 Quite Bitter Feelings

Stony Angel.. i am starting to hate email. how about one of the messages of yours that disapeared a week ago appeared this afternoon in my mailbox again to vanish yet again. i sent you an email yesterday i think. i hope you finally got it.

jackie.. hi sorry about the confusion but i hope you enjoy the story. if you have no idea what purpose victoria plays in this story and/or who she is you could read "altered life" it explains a lot more about her. hope you enjoy...

lizzie, sorry about any confusion. here is a lovely chapter with the beginning of wyatt and chris's resentment towards each other. enjoy..........................................................................................................................................

Piper looked back at the factor that they weren't freezing as she saw their blue white eyes search for the source that had stopped their attack. They didn't have to search far to find the source. Their eyes glittered in fury when they found Piper and Phoebe standing there.

"Oh, crap." Piper whispered.

An energy ball was instantly thrown at them.

Wyatt, who had instinctively gotten up so quickly out of his chair that it toppled over, used his telekinesis to reverse its course. From there he, quickly moved over to his family to see what he could do to protect his family.

It was times like these he wished that his Aunt Pheebs had real powers. Piper gave her oldest son a slight smile as her attention trained back over the twins. They both had seen them combine hands as well as it seemed powers and looked at each other in their silent communication.

Piper and Phoebe both gave each other a look.

They both had about the same disgust towards the twins. Not only were they the most unnatural looking human beings on earth, but they were creepy as hell with the whole silent communication thing.

"Times like these I wish I were a telepath," Phoebe mused.

"Mom, do you have any idea who they are?" Wyatt asked as he sent two of the energy balls coming in their direction back at the twins. They both shimmered out and then back in once the danger had past.

"Nope." a table was thrown at them along with another set of energy balls. Wyatt had enough time to deflect the energy balls, but the table was barreling straight at them still.

Piper who had been about to tell her oldest son about her assumption over the twins being separated would give them a better chance was caught in danger. She had to freeze the table because if she didn't there was about two seconds left before it would hit them all and then they would be out of service for awhile and innocents would be hurt.

Before she could freeze the table though it was thrown out of the path. She looked for her savior and saw a rumpled, weary looking Chris coming in a hurry from the backroom. He nodded towards her as she took a heavy angry sigh.

"So, what do you want us to do?" Wyatt asked as he threw a table at the twins to see how they liked it this time.

Piper threw her hands up in the air, "I don't know. Everything. All I can think of is maybe if we separate them they won't be as powerful."

"Okay, well you freeze them and I'll use my telekinesis to separate them." Wyatt told her as he quickly thought on his feet.

She shook her head at him. Just then Chris joined them and stood beside his mother and Aunt Phoebe.

"Hey, mom. Think you could take care of this with a little less noise?" Chris asked.

"Sorry, I wasn't given the decision here. Dumb and Dumber appeared and started throwing energy balls at innocents. Not to mention the lead singer of the band that I just booked for next weekend!"

"So, what? You saving your assets or what, Mom?" Chris asked with a Cheshire smile.

"Shut up, you. You know what I mean." Piper said, wagging her index finger at her son.

"Alright, what 's the plan then?" Chris asked, getting back to the real danger of the moment.

"Well, I thought mom could freeze Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dumb and I'd use my telekinesis to separate them so they aren't as powerful." Wyatt told Chris.

"Okay? Where in that whole plan did you forget about the three other people who could fight?" Chris asked his older brother as he folded his arms over his chest.

"About the time you hadn't appeared yet because you and your girlfriend were in the backroom making out." Wyatt wise cracked.

"Hey! Hey now. None of that." Piper reprimanded her oldest son.

"Yeah, you guys, back to your corners. Victoria chose Chris, remember? Whatever they do on their off time is their business." phoebe added as she tried to help the situation and leave the pressure off of a tired looking Piper.

"Yeah. Thanks for the status report Aunt Pheebs." Wyatt replied rolling his eyes heavenwards.

She didn't let the annoyment pass. She knew Wyatt liked Victoria more then he liked to let on. He had watched her every movement like a lovesick puppy since they all had found out she was on their side and not on the evil side. Chris had won her over though and that had pissed Wyatt off a bit.

Phoebe had seen every girl fall for Wyatt. Not many went after Chris once they saw Wyatt. Hell, half the time they went from Chris to Wyatt.

It was just something about him. Now, here was this very powerful and beautiful girl who was basically interlinked with the family and she didn't even give him a sideward glance. It pissed him off knowing that the first girl he had ever really liked had chosen Chris over him.

Well, they had some bad blood in their past lives so Phoebe didn't blame her. She just wished Wyatt would get over it already because in his anger he was starting to push his own little brother away from him.

There, of course, was something else too that was fueling Wyatt's feeling towards Victoria that Phoebe couldn't quite get a handle on. Wyatt had blocked her from that.

He was starting to get really good at that.

"We weren't making out!" Chris replied defensively. "For your information she wasn't feeling well and I was watching over her to make sure she was okay."

"Sure, she wasn't feeling well. Save it for someone who believes you." Wyatt replied.

Wyatt knew it probably was the truth. He had come into the club just in time to see her fainting, but he still would rather not discuss it right now. He didn't want to think about Victoria and how she could quite possibly be a threat to his family.

Instead, he wanted to pay attention to the present demons who liked to try to kill his family and himself.

He instantly used his telekinesis to throw an energy ball out of his family's path. "You see? You weren't paying attention and you nearly got us all flambéed." Wyatt told his brother.

"Yeah, whatever you say Wyatt." Chris replied slitting his eyes in anger.

Chris didn't understand why his brother was being such an ass at the moment. He didn't understand Wyatt anymore. All he did was bicker about him and Victoria being together or else he was so moody it was hard to be around him. Wyatt had used to be his cool older brother that he hung out with all the time. Now, he was barely tolerable for small periods of time.

"Guys, we have bigger problems right now then both of your feuding over the same girl!"Phoebe said clapping her hands together. "So... let's get to work and vanquish these sorry demons before they vanquish us.,"

"Good one," Piper told her sister.

Piper, herself, could barely tolerate the demons. Her son's bickering was enough to drive her insane especially with the baby making her emotions let alone her body wear out quickly.

Just as she thought of the baby she felt it kicking her stomach hard. The baby hit a part of her that it shouldn't have hit. Piper almost lost her footing on the ground as she cried out holding her belly in enormous.

Chris and Phoebe were close enough to grab her as Wyatt threw another table at the twins who were now hiding behind a table that they had flipped over themselves to stay out of their energy balls paths.

"Mom?" Wyatt cried as he turned to look at her after he had deflected their attack.

"Piper? Are you okay? Piper?" Phoebe asked, worriedly holding her sisters elbow as Piper leaned onto her.

"I don't feel so good," Piper told her.

Phoebe nodded. "You guys think you can hold down the fort for this one?"

"Yeah," Chris replied watching his mother worriedly.

"Good. Because I think Piper is down for the count." Phoebe replied.

Phoebe then took her older sister and lead her over to the end of the bar on her way towards the exit of the club.

Piper interrupted, "I am fine. I just need to sit for a minute."

Phoebe watched her sister worriedly.

She looked at her two nephews who now had their attention placed upon the twins. Then she guided her sister into the bar where she had her sit on the floor out of the way of any energy balls. There she felt her wrist against Piper's forehead. It was so cold. She barely felt warm.

"Piper, how long have you been like this?" she asked.

"Phoebe not now. Later, please." Piper pleaded leaning her head back onto the bar as hse closed her eyes to the world around her. 

Phoebe looked at her beautiful older sister and bit her lip. She didn't know what was wrong here. She didn't know why Piper was acting like this. It was a lot more important to keep her sister and the baby safe then anything. She didn't understand why her own sister didn't think that.

Phoebe laid her arm over Piper's shoulders and held her sister to her a Piper shook in her grip. From there she could see the reflection of the battle in a small mirror.

Wyatt and Chris were holding their own. And in the distance she saw this man. He looked human, but he had a tint of red to his skin that didn't seem quite right.

He was smiling. No human would be smiling while seeing this going on they would be running for her life. He had clapped his hands together and now was watching as if it were a movie and he was rooting for the evil side.

He was the twins guardian she realized. He was watching to see how good his little minions would do. He was the reason the twins were there and he was the one who pulled the string with them she realized out of no where.

Phoebe went to get a better look when she was instantly hit with a flash. A premonition started to play like an old movie she had played a part in played inside of her head.

Victoria was trying to push through everyone to see what had happened but Wyatt was trying to hold her back. Piper was lying on the ground in the attic and she was crying as she tried to give birth. She was in so much pain... Then, she was dead.

Piper was just lying there not breathing with her eyes fixated on the ceiling. Victoria pushed through and threw Wyatt back at the wall without her telekinesis as she moved to Piper. Phoebe then saw herself go to stop Victoria.

Then, she felt her own body being lifted up an thrown by an unseen power as she was thrown out of Victoria's way. She felt pain radiate through her stomach as she landed on her facedown on something cold and sharp. In her hands she saw blood and she felt a knife fall out of her stomachs wound as she turned onto her back in pain.

Phoebe came out of the premonition clutching at her stomach weakly. It was bleeding profusely. She felt her life edging away as she tried to hang onto her life.


	13. You'd Be Surprised

"I think we both know there is only one thing left to do, don't we?" Chris asked his brother as they stood side by side deflecting the random objects and energy balls being sent their way.

The twins had finally resulted to throwing the glass vases that were on the tables at them to try to keep them from going after them full on. Chris knew that his mother was going to have a field day with this place. It was going to look like a war zone had struck it after this fight was finally over.

Whatever had happened to his mother he hoped she was okay. She had just lost her footing out of no where, had started acting sick, and he hoped nothing was wrong with her or his little sister that she was carrying. Of course, she had never let him ignore the knowledge that he had been a problem had been born. She brought that up whenever she fought with him.

Chris looked at his brother with a quick side glance to see if Wyatt was even going to bother to respond. Their mother had told them to separate the demons . So, they would.

"We both orb and do the separate and conquer bit!" Wyatt asked as he deflected yet another glass vase coming at them with a table. The glass shattered and sparkled like broken gems blowing over the place and falling all over the ground to litter it.

"Nice to know were on the same page again. So which one do you want, Wy?" Chris asked as he looked at the twins.

The twins had come out from their little refuge under the table now and they both were still holding hands as they used their combined powers to try to hurt them. It was just so creepy to see them holding hands. He and his brother weren't that close so why were they? It was just so gay to see them there in the middle of the nightclub holding hands like a bunch of schoolgirls.

It was incredibly creepy to see also because they looked so subhuman it was impossible to believe they had tried to pass themselves off as humans. Their skin was just so pale in the lights that it almost glowed radioactively, then their hands were a color not humanly possible looking completely white in their sockets, and their red hair looked like there was something living in it.

They were evil of course. They just had to be lower level demons because they didn't seem to have the same notorious black color scheme along with natural human looks that upper level demons had.

"I think I'll go for Thing One on the right. You can have Thing Two on the left," Wyatt told him with a small smirk.

"Yeah, leave me with the one who keeps checking me out. Nice one, Wy," Chris complained.

That had been another thing that he disliked about these twins. The one on the left had been checking him out the whole time, whenever he deflected the energy ball it threw at him it would smile, and its eyes would glitter at him as it winked.

It didn't want him dead. Oh, no it wanted a bit more from him then a dead corpse.

Eww. Chris thought shaking off the revulsion that shook over him. It was disgusting. He was so not gay and here was this demon thing that wanted to make him its next cell block buddy. Yuck.

"I thought you would appreciate that." Wyatt told him laughing. "You know, since you seem to be having problems with Victoria I thought you would like the distraction."

"Nice one, but no way in hell. And, by the way, Victoria and I are not having problems. We are happy together."

"Define happy," Wyatt retorted.

"Let's just get this done before I let them have you as their very own twice blessed 7.0 boy toy." Chris replied giving his brother a look that could kill.

"Hey, only one of them is gay."

"Technically, both of them must be gay, I think. Unless I missed that biology class, the other should be on the same sexual path. So that would mean the other one wants you for his own sexual charisma and he's just playing hard to get with you." Chris told his brothers. Then, he hummed some stupid background music that would play in the back of Wyatt and the twins porno.

He saw Wyatt's shocked look as the information penetrated his brain. Wyatt took a glance at the twins and swallowed. Maybe he had been wrong about just giving Chris the one that liked him.

"So, if you want to be frolicking down the poppy field anytime soon holding hands.." Chris started.

"Alright, we'll switch."

"Glad you see it my way." Chris said.

They both gave each other a quick glance and then they orbed in behind the twins. The twins looked at each other still holding hands for a complete moment of unawareness. By then it was too late for them. Chris used his telekinesis while Wyatt used his and they both broke up the happy twins before they could do anything.

Twin one that liked Wyatt went sprawling through the air to hit the wall on the side of the club near the stage. While twin two who liked Chris a hell of a lot was thrown right at the bar and hit it with a crash. Twin one started to get to its feet, but was having a hard time since it had broken its leg and twin two stayed down for the count.

Wyatt instantly deflected some rope holding one of the stages curtains open to wrap it to tie roughly around the hands of twin two. Chris walked up to twin one and threw him against the stage hard again. From there, twin two didn't fight. Instead, he also just slid down the stage and watched in anger as the twice blessed brothers came to meet up in front of him in his defeat.

The club was basically silent now. It was devoid of the huge crashing noises that had came from before while the attack had been underway. Now, they stood victoriously over the twin and waited. Chris folded his arms over his chest while Wyatt stood watching the twins with his hands in his side pockets of his jeans.

"Help!" came a weak whimper behind the bar.

Both Chris and Wyatt gave each other a quick look. The whimper was a familiar one from someone who shouldn't even be in the same place with them. They both rushed to the bar where they saw Phoebe and their mother laying inside.

Phoebe looked up at them with dying eyes as she held out her bloody hand. They both ran in. Chris ducked under the entrance that was latched shut and Wyatt orbed in after him.

Chris touched Phoebe's stomach in confusion. They had been in the same room with her the whole time. No one else had been there so how had she been hurt? Chris quickly started to heal her and Wyatt looked over his mother. His mother seemed fine. She had just past out. Her breathing was still normal and she seemed fine otherwise.

"Phoebe what happened?" Chris asked as he healed her stomach.

"He was here and then Piper and Victoria..." she mumbled delusional.

"Victoria?" Chris cried. His hand was still healing Phoebe which was taking a lot longer time wise then usual to heal and he didn't know why. He looked down at her wound as it slowly closed. Victoria. She had said Victoria was there, but she couldn't have. She was still weak. She shouldn't have came.

Now where was she ? Who was he?

He looked at his brother helplessly. He needed to know where Victoria was. He needed to know she was fine but he had to heal Phoebe.

Wyatt gave him an understanding look." I will go check out Victoria alright. You heal Phoebe and wake up Mom and then take them back to the Manor. I'll get your girl."

The last part angered Wyatt as he said it. Chris's girl. She was Chris's and not his own like he had wanted in this life and in his last life where he had been an evil tyrant. She had chosen Chris over him every lifetime.

He still wondered if she would have went for him instead if he had never been in her past life.

Of course, he would never know because his brother was actually happy with someone and he didn't want to screw that up for him. His brother was with someone that he didn't have to keep secrets from and didn't have to worry about much since she was so powerful. Victoria was half god and half witch.

No one had to worry about her expect her enemies.

Which lately Wyatt had wondered who they were.

She had to have some.

He wondered if somehow the Halliwell's were them. Sure, she had been getting along with them and had become like a family member with them, but he knew what he had saw. He had saw evil in her and that didn't technically do any good ever when she was supposed to be in love with one of the strongest people in the world.

Especially, if she did turn completely. Especially, if she somehow turned Chris.

So Wyatt had tried to not be around them.

When he was with them he always got jealous. She was beautiful and she was everything that he had ever wanted in either life and she was with his brother. Not him and never him, but always his brother.

He hated them both for that.

Then there was the fact that he didn't completely trust her and he didn't want his brother to know. Because if he were just overreacting then Chris would always hate him for not trusting the love of his life and his family would always think he was just trying to break them up.

He was just in a hell of morality problem where he had no real answers and was basically living off of his own knowledge when it came to Victoria.

That and his lust after Victoria.


	14. Punch Drunk

Victoria hadn't been able to just sit there and rest while everyone was out in the club fighting. It had taken her forever to get up into a sitting position where the room hadn't been spinning. When it finally had happened though she had gotten to her feet and walked to the door.

Something was slowly taken over her mind though. She was only acting on instincts at the moment. So her brain was basically shut off and all she did was see what was happening around her as well as her own actions as she moved through the dreamlike state. It was completely weird too because there was this hunger that was growing inside her body that was making her body get up and walk to the door.

She saw a pair of creepy looking twin demons and then she saw Wyatt with Chris fighting them. She had wanted to go out there and help them fight, but it didn't work out that way. Because just then a demon had passed her and her body had turned away from helping the family that had taken her in as one of their own and she followed the wretched thing to the back alley.

She followed the man out into the back alley. Unlike the singer who he had just infected she could see who he really was. She could see the blue tint to his skin that only meant one thing. He was a demon and he had just done something very, very wrong and very stupid. Especially since he had done it in front of her on this very night when all she wanted was the fuel that he could give her to live.

She knew.

"Psstt" she hissed at him.

He turned to her. At first he was worried of who was after him. What he saw was a regular teenage girl all dressed up to go clubbing who may at the time be intoxicated. She watched him through a weary killer's eyes and smiled.

He thought she wasn't a threat. He thought she was just some silly drunk girl he could take advantage of.

"Why, hello?" he said sleazily as he took a few steps towards Victoria.

She giggled and slunk over to him. The sleeve of her glittering top falling down to expose her arm. Her pale skin shimmered in the moonlight. Her pale skin and dark eyes made her look almost undead. They made her look like a vampire.

"What's a girl like you doing out here?"

"I was waiting for my supper." she told him leaning into him

He smelt good. She could smell his cologne on him. It wasn't cheap. It was the good expensive stuff. She leaned into him and ran her hand over his shirt. It was silky to the touch.

He had expensive tastes. She liked that. It meant he took care of himself ; it meant he didn't think about things he only saw them and they registered in his brain.

Right now she could tell the only thing registering in his brain was that some hot mysterious girl was hanging all over him. He thought he was going to get lucky twice tonight. First, he had stolen demonic powers and left them off in a human host till the demons got off his tracks, and then he thought that she was going to go home with him tonight.

Poor stupid man.

She smiled up at him. He was an inch taller then her. His breath smelled like cheap peppermint gum and his hair smelled of some designer shampoo based off of his cologne.

She let her hands ripple under his silky black shirt and up it. Then she used her strength to break the shirt open, black buttons splashed everywhere in the alleyway as she smiled in satisfaction.

His neck was clearly visible to her. He had a perfect tan. Must be a tanning booth she thought smiling.

Right now she knew she wasn't at all like herself. Something had taken over her body that was hungry and repressed. It had taken over her mind also and was using her to get what it wanted. Well, more like what it needed to survive. It was cold and ruthless and medieval and it had infected her body.

"Wow, whoa there lady. I uh.. Not here," he said.

"Why?" she asked, pouting.

She was starving. Her body was ready to collapse and her energy was dwindling down in the night and he wanted to stop and chat. Perhaps have a coffee. Why did she end up getting the one guy left in this world who didn't want to rush into anything? The one demon like this none the less.

"I'm starving for a taste," she told him. "aren't you?"

He coughed and looked around the alley in discomfort looking for a way out. He was stuck rooted into the wall with her clasped to him in a hard grasp to get out of. He knew something was deadly about her now. She just wasn't some hooker or skank off the street. She had more of a motive for stopping him.

Sure, once she was done with him he would be dead. It would be for the greater good of humanity. The way she was going to... do him wasn't.

"Stop resisting me. You know you want me. You know you haven't been with a girl in four months." she could just tell that by the scent of the last girl he had impregnated. He didn't know though. She did. She knew the past, present and future of all things written on him. She hated him for letting her know these things. She hated him for being alive to show them to her. She hated him because she couldn't stop the images flowing through her brain as his life flashed before her eyes. She hated not knowing why she knew these things out of no where it was just like these images.. These memories were imprinted over him from the time he was alive to his death and now she had a taste of it as she touched him.

It was a new power. She knew that for a fact. Whether she wanted it or not was another ordeal. What the consequences would be for having it would be another.

"How did you?"

"Shh." she said. Waving her hand, she expelled the act of his using his voice box as he gaped at her. She tilted into him. "I'm going to show you all the things you have never felt. The way it stings to know you're in danger, the way your heart beats faster as if it beating faster could possible make you move faster to escape your own demise. I'm going to let you feel how it is to be hunted down like an animal and then eaten alive just because it will be fun."

He shook underneath her grip. His skin was cool to the touch, but his heart was burning inside of his chest.

"Mmm. And when I am done with you you will know it."

"Who are you?" he whimpered.

"I'm your inevitable death, sweetheart." she answered licking his cheek.

Something dark was coming into her body, something was making her want to kill him, and something cold wanted her to enjoy. It was alien inside of her blood yet it was comfortable inside of her skin, she pressed her forehead to his. Third eye to third eye as she looked deep into his black eyes.

"I'm not going to chase you down. I don't need to chase you. You are mine already." she said resting the palms of her hands on the brick wall on either side of his head.

"You don't know who you are messing with." he tried to warn her.

He formed an energy ball in his hands. It was the only power he had. At least he wasn't as weak as he was letting on.

She shook her head. Pressed her body into his and took the palm of his energy ball infested hand in hers like evil past life Wyatt had once done to her. As she did the energy ball faltered and turned into smoke.

He looked into her eyes. He knew now what it was like to be weak. He knew now how all the women he had killed in the past felt.

She liked letting him feel helpless. He would never be able to be a chameleon again, he'd never be able to destroy another persons life and he would never get the chance to hurt anyone else. She liked feeling strong and unstoppable as she leaned into him. It was a nice change from the worry and unknowing feelings that had corrupted her as of late.

"You know I am going to kill you. However, I will give you one convenience if you so wish it." she told him.

"What convenience?" he spat out at her.

Oh, poor demon was angry he was bested by a girl, poor baby. She looked at him with one eyebrow raised and tilted her head. Her hand she used to swirl over his face. She touched his third eye then his throat , and then she let her hand glide over him.

"You have a child."

"Whatever you say, lady."

"You will have a child on July 3rd. It will be a boy. He will be half the man you are. "she told him flatly.

"No way in hell." he tried to get out of her hold, but she ended up knocking his head into the brick wall with her left hand.

"There obviously is a way in hell for you being a father to a soul so pure."

"I'm not a father. I have no one."

"Quinn doesn't feel that way," she responded.

She almost lost her footing as she saw the visions of Quinn as the information piled into her mind. Quinn was quiet. Quinn was a librarian. Quinn was ordinarily. That's why he had liked her. She had never thought he was a demon. She never had guessed.

They had had few dates. He had stayed with her till he had got laid and then he'd left her. He had had feelings for her. He didn't know how to handle them so he had left.

It was the same old story with most guys.

"Quinn," he whispered in the hushed environment around them.

"Your decision is necessary here." she informed him in a calculated voice.

"For what? You're going to kill me. What is the convenience?"

"I can let her know. Your last words do count."

"Just kill me." he said looking off into the distance.

"As you wish," Victoria said and then she placed her mouth beside his chin. There she opened his life energy and pored it into her body. She suckled on it like an newborn baby as his power started to refuel her dwindling strength.

He flinched and tried to break away, but it only made the pain come back harder on him.

"Wait," he whispered. He cared.

She pulled away for a moment.

"For what?" she asked.

"What's his name?"

"Is that all you want?"

"I want everything. Doesn't mean I will be getting it anytime soon."

She nodded with a distant smile at true that was. "She will name him after you."

He nodded. She gave him a moment to comprehend her words. And then she took the last of his life energy from him as he collapsed into her arms. She held him tightly and sucked it away faster. The more she got, the better she felt, and the more he gave the faster he went. She smiled as she bite harder into the last of his life energy.

After she had killed him all she could do was laugh. She laughed leaning against the wall feeling like a drunken fool. She know understood the saying 'high on life'. Her wrist was turned in towards her body and her back was half tilted on the wall. Her side was leaning against the wall and her back was shaking in the undercurrents of laughter as she thought about it in her moment of drunken insanity.

She laughed harder feeling empty as she looked up at the clear black sky above her with its twinkling stars.

Up there, she'd always wanted to be up there as a child. It was so much easier up there. It was so much easier to live when you were dead.

Victoria brushed a few tears away from her face drunkenly. Her stomach was hollow and her heart was jumping. She felt as if she had run a marathon and she still had the adrenaline still pumping though her body over her victory. Of course, this wasn't the type of victory she had thought she needed.

Of course, it wasn't every day that you find out you're a psychic vampire. Might as well make the best of it, she thought wickedly.

As she looked up the stars glow brighter. She almost felt as if she could touch them. If she wasn't half drunk off the life energy of the demon she had just ate she would have tried to fly to them. At this moment, she didn't doubt the fact that she could.

She should have known she could never be like the Charmed Ones. She could never be with them the way they were so good and so pure to the world and the way she was tainted and unrestrained. She wasn't meant to be with them. She didn't care what the Elders had said once about their paths interlinking.

Whatever drug the Elders had been smoking at the time had gone wrong and reality was still present. She was a danger to them. She could hurt them and they wouldn't even know it till it was too late. She could kill them and destroy the Charmed Ones bonds forever if she cared enough.

She, unlike anyone else evil, was on the inside. They trusted her. One of them even loved her. How he could love her she would never understand. She gave him nothing in return. All she did was worry him and take his presence from his family but somehow he was still with her.

Not for long though

He would soon figure out what she was like. He would know soon.

Then she walked down the alley back into the club to wait for Chris to come back to her and comfort her once he was done fighting the twins. He would see her recovery and stop worrying about her. She could give him that little refuge from worry for the time being. She had a feeling that this would curse her forever to live off of others energy.

She had a feeling that evil past life Wyatt had past the curse of being a psychic vampire onto her when she had last kissed him. She also knew there was no way to stop being one to. Not unless, of course, she died.

As she thought about her cursed future she drew pretty pictures with the tips of her fingers in the air that glowed in gold for a moment before they disappeared in embers. She didn't know it then, but someone had seen her display of insanity.

Wyatt had.

He stood behind the dumpster by the door leading out to the alleyway from the nightclub and watched her go back inside. His face was completely emotionless as he watched knowing that his suspicions had been confirmed to a point.

He had saw the whole thing.


	15. Worry In The House Of Thieves

Wow, it's been a few days. Thank you all for your reviews. I enjoyed all of them. I thought you all would love the idea of Victoria becoming a psychic vampire. Sorry, I didn't hit on Wyatt's reaction with her yet but I am still planning on how to present that chapter. That and I totally forgot about the lead singer of Red Helter being a big part of chapter 13 and she never even really appeared in it.

Be prepared for another lead girl character for a bit in the lead singer of Red Helter. I am so happy that this story is finally hitting into the good parts!

Oh, and sorry about how slowly I am updating. I was doing so good with ALTERED LIFE and I am slow on this one. College and work is evil!!!!

Stony Angel I still want to collaborate. I don't know if you got the other idea I had for a story. I have given up on bored mail because it sucks butt. So I now have an account at hotmail under the name vintagestacy so you can email me there better. Hopefully, if I send mail to you from there it won't end up all crappy and in your junk mail pile.

Chris helped Phoebe to her feet. She smiled up at Chris and gave him a helpful pat on the back for healing her. Then, Chris bent down to his own mother. She was unconscious. She was perfectly fine besides the factor that she had just passed out there for no reason.

He smiled lightly as he looked over his mother. His poor mother. She had to deal with everything. She had to fix everything so that they all could survive and she didn't deserve to be taken granted. He had tried to not take her for granted every chance he got.

He knew she had a tough time. Anyone, would have a tough time trying to keep the family together, magically keep everyone alive and well, and then trying to have their own social life on the side not to mention being the a club owner as well as manager for P3.

She needed to rest. She didn't though. His mother was always trying to be up and about and trying to take care of everyone else. Sometimes, he doubted that his mother ever really even thought of herself.

In the beginning, when they had learned she was pregnant with Melinda his father hadn't even been around a lot of the time. The Elders, being the perfect all-knowing ones that they were, had chosen to let his father become an Elder all over again right around that time.

So, his father had had to help the Elders and his own charges all over again. It had been weeks at a time he wouldn't have seen his father. His mother had taken it the hardest too. She had been going through a pretty bad pregnancy with Melinda.

Chris wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he had a bad feeling about this baby being born.

Sure, he wanted to see his newborn baby sis, but hell he wanted his mother to be alive more. He didn't care if Melinda was supposedly all powerful. They all were all all powerful so all he needed to know was that his mother was going to be alive and well when she did have Melinda. Otherwise, he was willing to save his mother over his sister any day.

Sure, he knew that he was pretty damned lucky so far with his mother. Halliwell women barely ever survived having their children and seeing them hit puberty let alone their own children's graduation. Plus, there had been a million times that she had been near death or supposedly been dead for a few minutes. She was still alive and kicking and that was all that mattered to him.

"Mom," he whispered gently as he tapped her shoulder.

She looked so peaceful. He knew she barely slept anymore with the baby constantly giving her problems, but he didn't want to let her sleep here in the middle of the club where demons could come and attack at any moment.

Piper shrugged off his voice and leaned her head back more. An instant later though the world came crashing back into her mind as she realized her son needed her. That factor and the fact she didn't remembering going to bed at home woke her up instantly. Piper quickly opened her chocolate brown eyes and scanned her surroundings.

She was still at the club. Her son, Chris, was right in front to her kneeling down and looking quite worried about this. He was always worried about something, but now his worry was directed at her. Now, she knew why. She was sitting in the little bar area of P3 just sitting there unconscious.

"Oh, Chris. I must have dozed off." she said sheepishly as she looked around.

Chris instantly helped her to her feet.

It was a heavy load she was carrying now with the baby. This was the last kid she was ever going to have she swore to herself. She was about to swear off birthing babies ever again after this pregnancy and she was about done with the big birtha gig that came with lugging the kid around with her during the whole ten months of pregnancy.

It was times like these she wished she were a man so she could just sit on the couch with a beer in one hand and a remote in the other while watching a few football games. Then, when the time came for the baby to be delivered she would then be there to watch the child be born. Instead, of course, of having to give birth to the baby.

"Mom, are you sure you are okay?" Chris asked watching her every movement as if she were an invalid.

"Yes, I'm fine," she told him slightly annoyed.

"Well, sweetie. He means well." Phoebe replied sensing Piper's annoyment. "You know, since you just passed out and all he just kind of needs to check up on you a bit."

"I am fine. I was just a little drozy for a minute there and so I rested. It's no big deal. I'm fine. Look at me," she replied spinning around in a circle for them.

Chris frowned at her general reaction to his worry and gave Phoebe a look. A look in which Phoebe returned instantly. Then when she saw the giant 'I am going to kick both your butts if you don't stop this' look on Piper's face she stopped. Phoebe instantly went to her older sister and took her arm in hers and laid her head on her shoulder.

"Oh, sweetie. Now, that you're all better how about we get you home and in bed," Phoebe said coyly.

"Oh, no you don't . I am not a child. I do not need a bedtime and I am fine."

"Mom, how many times are you going to actually say you're fine when you are not fine?" Chris asked her folding his arms over his chest.

Piper gave her son a look that could kill and then she shook her head throwing her hands in the air, "Until, someone believes me, aright??'

"Maybe, Wyatt is sometimes that gullible, but I'm not mom. Why don't you just rest a minute and let everyone else take care of you for once." Chris asked his mom.

"Alright, you win." Piper finally gave in knowing if she didn't she would never hear the end of it.

"Yay! So, I have already planned on you going to bed early I will get you some cocoa and one of those weird sandwiches that you like so well with pickles and mayonnaise and then you will be good to go for beddie bye," Phoebe told her in a very happy, chirpy voice.

"Oh, god. I feel like I am going to be sick from all of this pampering already." Piper moaned.

"Don't worry about it, mom. I'll save you from Phoebe's random food disasters. You betcha, I'm your man. I'll make sure she remembers to add the mustard on it too." Chris added with a smile.

"Gee, thanks." Piper said as Chris gave her a big hug along with Phoebe and she felt like disappearing forever the way her family was now treating her as an invalid. Instead of disappearing, she had an excellent idea of getting Chris back for putting her through the whole pampered invalid routine.

"Alright, let's get home already. I really need to get my feet up. And Chris, since you seem to be so helpful in helping Phoebe with this scheme you get to rub my feet." Piper smiled as she informed him of his punishment.

"Again?" he whimpered.

"Again," she replied as her smile widened.

"But mom." he tried.

Piper was about to tell Chris 'there were no ifs, ands, or buts about it' when she heard someone else in the club. She turned her head waiting to see Wyatt or Victoria to come into her line of vision and saw instead the lead singer of Red Helter.

The girl looked at them with her long curly blond hair flying into her pale face as she breathed hard. The look of pure terror was still imprisoned on the girls face as she saw them all. Piper then noticed the girls hand was holding tightly to her side.

As Piper looked at her harder she saw a rough looking bloody tear in the girls shirt. It looked as if the girl had been hit by one of the energy balls that the demonic gay twins had been throwing everywhere in order to stop their inevitable death.

"Oh my god," Phoebe whispered as she looked in the direction Piper had been looking and saw the hurt girl.

The girl swallowed hard. She looked as if she were trying to say something. Her bloody hand moved away from her wounded side and reached out to them.

Piper was the closest so she instantly reacted by reaching her own hand out to hold the girl's by going towards the girl. She had a hold of the girls hand but not good enough because a moment later while Piper had tried to steady her instead of letting the poor wounded girl fall the girl fell hard onto the ground.


	16. Subconscious Paranoia

Hi everyone. I have hit a rough week. First some bad luck at work, school, and then a bit of writers block. Sorry about the late updates. I'll try harder for another one.

This chapter is a bit of a filler chapter. I still have to write the one with everyone dealing with the singer. Which I am trying to figure out a bit of humor for, but you never know how it'll end up.

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Victoria walked through the lonely ghost infested hallway. She slowly bumped into a few walls trying to avoid the avid ghosts. They shrieked at her from their irrepressible corners. They knew she cold see them somehow and they wanted her for themselves. They wanted her to help them. They were beyond her help. They had never crossed over and they were stuck.

Most of them were evil anyways. They didn't need to be passed on to their own personal version of hell. They were already there seeing the Charmed Ones getting stronger year by year and closer as their lives developed. They were in hell here.

She was inside the backroom now. There were ghosts in there too, but these ghosts were quiet ones. She quickly shut the door behind her and gave a small sigh of relief in the pitch black room.

Everything in the room glowed to her eyes. To anyone else's eyes everything was pitch black but she could see everything that was or had been alive.

It all had a past history. It had been touched by the long dead and by its Charmed inhabitants. The floor was the safest place for her to be. There it was neutral ground. There she couldn't pick up the glimpses of memory or deaths of people who had touched it.

She giggled feverishly and ran her hands through her hair as she slowly rocked on the floor. She had to pull herself together. This new power was hard to heal with and she didn't know exactly what she could do with it let alone how to handle it.

She just needed a few minutes to figure this out.

She had a few minutes too since Chris was off avenging his family. Demons seemed to take up a lot of time with him so it would be okay. She wouldn't be bothered for at least a few more minutes.

Oh god, Chris.

He was going to be pissed with her. She wasn't exactly being very truthful with him as it was and here she was acquiring a new power. She didn't know what to say about this power. It had come after she had fainted and it was stronger then her. It seemed to be able to take a hold of her and make her do things she wouldn't regularly do. It had only been slightly conquered through vanquishing another demon.

Yeah, tell yourself that, she told herself bitterly.

It had come under her own control once she had killed.. Once she had taken a demons life energy to live to sustain and replenish her own life energy. She was like a freaking vampire. A psychic vampire at that.

The world really knew how to screw her over at times.

She had seen vampire movies. They had humongous teeth and the craving never went away for them. They killed to survive and after awhile they lost what made them human in the first place. After awhile, they lost their morality and killed for the power.

Not to mention the long freaky teeth that could strike right into the jugular.

She needed to see if she had those teeth.

She quickly got up from off the dirty cement floor and went to a slightly dusty mirror. She didn't dare touch it to wipe the dust off of its surface. That would be like a kamikaze.. The memories not to mention the images that would torment her brain like a relentless hurricane would drive her insane.

She would get too many images over time. She didn't need that.

She looked a bit like a ghost in her reflection from the dust over the mirror. A chill spread over her as she thought of this. The invisible man in her old house had shown her reflection to her as a ghost.

Was she going to die? After everything was she going to die?

She ignored her panicked thoughts and stared at herself through the dust in the mirror

Victoria looked at her own reflection in the mirror as she opened her mouth wide and tried from all angles to see if she had vampire teeth.

Nothing. Her teeth looked like they always did regularly. This barely gave her any contentment.

She touched her teeth. She then thought of life energy that her own body had taken into her to make her so high at this moment. It had been then that her teeth had came to her when she had been about to strike. There was only one thing she had left to try.

Hell if she thought of the life energy maybe they would appear.

They did too. Instantly.

Two vampire teeth slowly drew themselves out of her gums and appeared longer then the rest of her teeth as they appeared. Their long white veils of bone appeared in the mirror as she gave a small muffled cry.

She cried out in anguish then. She drew away from the mirror as if that would make it all better. As if that would make them disappear and never come back. She was innately magical. Life was never that easy.

She stopped probing her teeth and tried to stay in her own version of denial over it all.

She was a demon. How? She had been good all this time. She had never chosen a side but she had fought for good so far. She shouldn't be a demonic force at all.

How could she be? She was already a witch and half god. How could vampire be added to her resume?

Okay, Victoria, she told herself calmly, think about it. So, she tried hard to think about it. She was a demon, but how? She hadn't been attacked by anything as of late. The only weird unnatural oceanic had been the invisible man. He hadn't attacked her like a vampire did.

There had been no bite marks. There had been no vampire bats after her sucking her blood and then changing her into their own kind. There was no reason for her to be this way. There just wasn't a way.

Even as she thought this she felt a shiver pass over her body as she heard the invisible mans voice vibrate through her mind again.

"You have a connection to life as well as death," the voice whispered into her ear as she stared at her own fingertips. One had been cut on the roughness of her new vampire teeth and it was bleeding now.

"What did you mean?" she whispered. When no one answered she told the room softly, "I think I am ready to know now."

"Enjoying your new powers?" the voice answered in the cold, dark backroom. Somehow the room had slowly chilled over the time it had taken for whatever or whoever it was to appear.

"No."

"Shame. I gave them to you for a reason."

"Yeah, you also cursed me." she answered angrily as she bunched her hands into fists.

She had fought for her life not longer then a month ago. She had been cursed to live till her nineteenth year and then die. Chris and the Charmed Ones had helped her through surviving that one. Now, here she was again in his same dilemma.

She knew one thing for sure. If the Charmed Ones found out what she was now she would be dead. If they figured it out they would vanquish her. Even though they had become close over the time she had actually lived her life they wouldn't say no to killing an enemy or even a threat to them.

Which she had a feeling she would become pretty soon since she had a very demonic virus passing through her as it gave her new powers.

Her power was demonic. She knew it was demonic and now she was totally in the dark. Sure, it was okay if she did this life sucking energy thing to demons. It would make a smaller amount of demons infesting the earth once she was done, but what if she couldn't control it?

What if she ended up using it on someone she knew because it took over her again like it had before?

What if Chris was the person she ended up killing?

She didn't want to deal with that. She wanted answers and she wanted them now. "Come out and show yourself already!" she called into the room around her.

Just as she said this Wyatt entered the room.

He looked at her warily and suspiciously just like he always did so she had no idea if he knew what she was or not. He kept his distance from her and searched the room. For whoever she had been talking to. When he found no one he just watched her calmly yet suspiciously.

There were no expressions on his face. He was completely devoid of emotions. He might as well have been a robot.

As much as Wyatt still weirded her out because of their whole past life. Sure, he wasn't the same man who had cursed and killed her. Sure, he was completely different now in this life. The Charmed Ones had been good to him and he was good now. Still, she felt some weird underlying feelings that he had hidden towards her at times.

"Who are you talking to?" he asked as he searched the room.

Victoria ignored his question and looked around the room instead. Wyatt was the last person she wanted to see at the moment because she didn't know how he felt towards her enough to trust him.

Sometimes she would look up from whatever she was doing and see him watching her. Even then she didn't know what he was thinking. She didn't know if he saw her as the enemy or the ally sometimes the way he acted towards her. Hell, the way the room would just suddenly get chilled why she was around him made her wonder even more then ever how he felt towards her. Plus, whenever she saw him watching her with Chris she thought she could see a bit of jealousy striking the surface, but she didn't know for sure.

She never knew with Wyatt and that could end up being her death sentence.

She had a secret now. She knew why she had been sick early. She knew she had to keep it to herself until she could figure out what to do about it.

The last thing she needed was Wyatt watching her every move while she tried to figure out what had happened to her.

So, she tried to be normal. She looked back at Wyatt and folded her hands over her chest firmly and answered him finally, "I thought someone was here with me. I was worn though."

Right now there were no emotions she could figure out from Wyatt as he slowly accepted her response. She knew he didn't believe it from the moment it left her mouth but she knew he couldn't prove otherwise.

Victoria could tell he was drawn inside though. He kept his distance from her as they regarded each other warily in the dark back room. She didn't know him that well but she had a feeling that whatever it was that was going on inside of him was tearing him up.

She only hoped that it had nothing to do with her.


	17. Enjoy The Silence

"Are you okay?" Chris asked his mother.

Piper had luckily moved back a step before the girl had been able to topple straight onto her body. Instead, the girl had fallen over right onto her already poor achingly sore feet and there she was resting as Piper looked a bit aggrieved to the situation.

"Oh sure, I'm fine. She just fell right onto me that's all." Piper replied sarcastically.

Chris took up the singer off of his mother's feet and the floor into his arms. She had been lying on this mother's feet and he knew that that wasn't good. Especially when before the girl had even shown up she had been complaining about her feet and even before that his poor mother had been passed out behind the bar. The singer mumbled into him as he held her to him.

"Cuddly cuddly wuddly bear." the singer mumbled into Chris's shirt.

"Wow. Chris you not telling us something?" Phoebe said, smugly teasing her nephew.

"Is she alright?" Piper asked frowning as she looked at the girl who was haphazardly lying in Chris's arms.

Piper's eyebrows were clearly raised and she was a bit overwhelmed by everything that was happening so far that day. She was pretty darn tooting sure she was getting too old to deal with all of this.

Piper then started to wonder if after all the demons they had all vanquished they could get a hiatus away from the craft for a little bit if not for the rest of their lives.

"Yeah she'll be fine. She's breathing and that's all that counts, right?" Chris replied as he ignored Phoebe's comment with an annoyed look and answered his mother.

"Well that's an improvement, I guess." Piper replied brushing her hand over her stomach where the baby inside her lay quiet.

"She's lucky she survived an energy ball." Phoebe added.

"She must be pretty strong." Piper said .

"Or pretty lucky." he added. "And pretty delusional at the moment."

The singer wiggled a bit in Chris's unready arms. She kept snuggling her blond curled head up on his shirt as she tried to find a comfy spot on his chest.

"Mmmm. Smelly yummy good boy." the singer said again incoherently.

Piper was vaguely amused at Chris's discomfort. It was nice to see Chris with a girl in his arms. Of course, it wasn't the right one but she guessed a girl was good enough. This one was even making it even more funny since the girl was so delusional and was saying a whole bunch of oddities.

This was going to be one long night.

"Hold on. Where did she come from anyways?" Phoebe asked.

"I don't know. Don't look at me." Chris replied when all eyes laid on him.

"She ran with the others. So, why is she still here?" Phoebe stated in confusion as she surveyed the girl who was badly wounded in Chris's arms.

"More importantly how much did she see?" Piper added.

They had had a few very harsh brushes with the world seeing their witchcraft. It was a risk along with their own lives that they took everyday. It didn't help that this time their innocent happened to be a very public figure like an up and coming singer.

Piper hadn't even really met the girl. She had just let her band play that night because when she had said the name aloud around a few of her employees they all had immediately piped up to say that the band Red Helter was worth it. So, she had thrown them on.

She hadn't expected a huge demon infested fighting match to go on the day she had this majorly famous local band play. She hadn't ever expected she would have to deal with the lead singer as her innocent. She also hadn't even expected to be down on one very powerful ally.

Victoria. She had lied to them about being sick. She had lied to Chris, and Piper knew for a fact he was going to give her hell for it.

"Well I know what I saw." Phoebe said clapping her hands together. "Firstly, the ambiguously gay duo twins threw an energy ball at her and the guy she was with. Then, they attacked us. Now, they are out of commition for the time being" Phoebe recapped for everyone.

"Wait a minute, missie. Where's the guy she was with?" Piper asked.

"Uh. He ran? Fled the scene of paranormal activity in the first half," Phoebe replied not knowing for sure of anything.

"Leaving his up and coming American Idol wannabe here?" Piper asked incredulously. She had also seen the man with the singer of Red Helter. He had wanted her to be apart of his company or whatever. He had even been handing her his card when the twins had thrown their energy balls at him.

"Hey, it could happen. Think about it, Piper. Sneaky weasel executive of a music corporation runs for his life in order to survive another year sucking the life out of all his music corps. star conquests or top executive stays and protects up and coming unsigned contracted artist?" Phoebe asked her sister as she made a balance with her hands.

"Good point. He's gone with the wind." Piper nodded.

"Alright. Then, what now?" Chris asked. "Guys?"

"Chris, Chris, Chris. You get the chance to be the strong hero in the story here and you want to give that up already?" Phoebe asked her nephew smiling.

"Well, yeah. She's heavier then she looks."

"Men," Piper and Phoebe both stated together as they shook their heads and placed their hands on their hips almost in unison.

Then, they looked at each other. Piper bit her lip and said. "We've been around each other for too long."

"Yeah, I know." Phoebe replied as she looked around the club and tried to ignore the fact they were standing the same way as she then swung her arms around a little bit.

"Hey, you try carrying her." Chris replied, defensively.

"No thanks. I think I'll pass," Phoebe responded.

"Okay, I say we take her back home and regroup there till we figure this out," Chris told his mother and aunt as he tried to find a happy medium as he held the singer in his arms.

"I guess that's the best we can do for now," Piper nodded as she ran her hand through her hair and looked around the club. Both Phoebe and Chris cringed knowing what was coming as Piper shrieked. "Look at this place. It's a mess!"

"Yeah, it looks like a nuclear disaster site." Phoebe agreed surveying the club with her sister.

"And I know just who to thank for that." Piper told her family as she started in the twin demons direction.

Piper we to the twin demons and instantly surveyed them. The one who was conscious sensing her intent to destroy them hissed at her.

"Yeah. Do you really think that that's scary. I'll show you scary." she replied as she flicked her wrists and blew up his counterpart. She then turned back to him as Phoebe added her presence to her sisters' side and then she asked the one still alive as well as conscious, "Are you willing to answer my questions?"

The demon stared back blackly at her and the spot its twin brother had once been. Now, his twin was in ashes on the floor. The twin hissed again at her.

"Well, I'm gonna take that as a no" Piper responded and flicked her wrists impatiently. The remaining twin burst into a pile of dust and scattered over the floor.

"Mom, what the hell did you do that for? We could have got answers out of them!" Chris cried as he stopped beside them.

"Firstly, don't ever say 'hell' around me. You know how I feel about you and your brother cursing. Secondly, sweetie, when we need answers we'll either summon someone up who can help us or we'll get a premonition from Phoebe. Don't worry about it. Those two were only trying to get noticed anyways." Piper told her youngest son.

"Noticed?" Chris asked as he tried to move the singer in his arms around to get a better grip on her body. "Mom they tried to kill innocents!"

"Yeah, well they also winked at you and checked you and your brother out." Piper replied with her head tilted back. Her long dark brown hair falling backwards in the red lights of the empty club making her look like a queen waiting for her royal subjects reply.

"Eww. Please, that's gross don't bring it up again." Chris replied shivering in repulsion as he squinched his face up in disgust.

"So, shall we?" Chris added trying to get out of there as quickly as possible and also so that he could change the subject so his mother wouldn't get into a cleaning frenzy.

No one really replied.

Phoebe looked quizzically at him for a moment. The singer of Red Helter's hand fell to the side as Chris tried to get a better handle on her weight for the hundredth time. A plain silver banded ring flew off of her finger as he did. Phoebe quickly picked it up and went to place it back on the girl's hand when she had an instant premonition.

_She saw the man who had been giving the girl his card. He was walking down the alley behind the club and then he stopped immediately. He was standing there for a moment as he saw someone. The next moment he was dead on the stone alley wall. Then, she saw a drunken Victoria walking dizzily around. There was a black aura over her body that followed her everywhere. It was around her one moment and then it went into her another like a game of illusions._

Phoebe gasped and came out of the premonition. Chris and Piper watched her ready for anything as she looked at both of them. She forgot about the ring in her hand and swallowed. She stared at Chris as he realized it was something big concerning him.

"What? Pheebs, what did you see?" Piper asked her little sister in concern at her sister's paling face.

"I.. I saw the man who was here. We won't have to look far for him," she told them.

"Why?" Chris and Piper both asked.

The singer in Chris's arms giggled out of no where destroying the silence around them.

They all surveyed her weirdly. Perhaps she was evil and not an innocent Phoebe wondered as she look down at the silver banded ring in her hand. It was an engagement band.

"Because he's dead now." Phoebe replied flinching as she bit her lip. "And Chrisâ Something's wrong with Victoria. Really, really, really wrong and weird and supernatural is wrong with her."

"What? How?" He asked in confusion.

Everyday they all had to deal with some strange possession or death match for their lives or whatever. Those were the consequences for saving the world daily. It was just so weird though whenever it did happen to one of them. It was generally weird now that Victoria was one of them and she was so very strong and here she was possessed by something.

Piper wished she hadn't had to bring her sons into a world like this. As if relationships weren't already hard enough in real life with all the troubles of normal day problems. Adding the supernatural just didn't seem very fair for her sons as well as her sisters and herself having to face daily.

"She's.. I dunno. Did she have too many drinks today. Maybe that was some of it." Phoebe tried to figure it out.

"No, mom wouldn't let her have any." Chris replied as worry imprinted itself all over his face.

"Well, my battleship just sunk." Phoebe replied frowning in dismay.

"Phoebe!" Chris cried.

"I hate to be the barrier of bad news, butâ she â I don't know. In my premonition, I thought she was drunk, but hey she could just be a little off the deep end or tired. No harm no foul, right?" Phoebe tried to lighten it up a bit but it didn't happen.

"What!?!" Chris cried.

"Honey," Piper tried to calm him down.

"Mom," he said in a slightly warning tone that was meshed with worry. "Don't patronize me now."

"Uh, guys. There was something else." Phoebe added.

"Well?" Piper asked.

"What now?" Chris asked.

"There was a strange black aura with her the whole time. And well, the last time we saw that aura thing. Well, we didn't see it. Prue saw it and last time she saw that thing it meant" Phoebe tried to get her statement out without sending Chris into a panic.

"It meant Death." Piper ended for her younger sister in the quiet room.

"What?" Chris cried out.

Piper didn't have to know what was going on inside of him. She knew it all too well from her own experiences. He was closing down. He was in denial. In the same state of denial though he was seeing his life flash before his eyes. He was seeing all the good times with Victoria and he was seeing her dead. He was trying not to, but it was hard now that that statement had been uttered.

He was trying to see his life without the one person he had fallen hard for.

It was slowly slamming down on him. All he wanted now was to see her to make sure she as okay. All he wanted now was to watch over her to make sure death wouldn't be able to stake his claim.

And that would be deadly for him. Phoebe had had her time trying to make sure death didn't kill one of her ex boyfriends. That hadn't ended up right at all. Instead of saving him Phoebe had almost been killed off with him for being in Death's way in the first place.

Piper didn't want to deal with that again. She didn't want to lose her son so early like she had before. She didn't want to lose her new ally either.

"But that can't be right. The Elders said she was going to help us out for years. She's only been with us for a month!" Phoebe replied in a quick shot of a sentence.

"Mom, how?" Chris asked in a lost voice.

"Don't worry about it. Phoebe got the premonition so we could save her and we will. Alright?"

He nodded quietly still inside his torment of worry.

"Good. Then, we are going to go home and not say a word about this to her. Now, let's get back to the Manor quickly. Wyatt will be probably already be there with Victoria. We'll get our innocent healed and then, we'll figure this all out. Everybody got it?" Piper asked as she issued her orders.

"Aye aye captain." Phoebe replied lightly.

Chris only nodded and Piper shook her head. "Let me just go get my purse and we can go."

Phoebe watched her sister and nodded, "Yeah, I'll go with you in case you need help."

Piper shot a glance of 'what a lame excuse' to her sister. She didn't think Chris had gotten it well since he just stood there waxenly. He was about ready to orb off without them. So she only hoped she could get this conversation with her sister out quickly.

"Why did you tell him we could save her?" Phoebe cried in a whisper. "Once death lays his claim on someone he doesn't give it up."

"What did you expect me to say? 'Uh, Chris, sweetie, your girlfriend is as good as dead so get over it now'? "Piper asked her sister annoyed. "Besides, you did have that premonition for a reason."

"Yeah, well I have had premonitions for innocents we couldn't save before too. Remember that, sis?" Phoebe replied intensely.

"Look, he's my son. I am going to help him save his girlfriend alright?"

"Piper, what if we can't? What if the Elders were wrong about her all along and she is really meant to die young?"

"We will save her." Piper replied firmly. "No one is meant to die young. Not her. Not mom. Not Prue."


	18. Predicament 101

Hello, everyone. I just wanted to thank you all for reviewing. It's nice to see you're all reading. Thanks a lot. Zeria welcome back to reviewing. I hope you like this one as well as the first. This one is a bit less action less so far though. I am getting into the good stuff really soon. I promise. I haven't seen a review from you in quite a bit.

So, how awesome am I I actually posted another chapter on here before the weekend. Oh yeah. That's what I like to call a little inspiration.

As always read and review.

"You haven't gone crazy or schizophrenic in here, have you?" Wyatt asked. He ducked his thick head of dirty blond curls down and pulled his hands into his pockets. Then, he came into the room fully instead of just leaning against the doorway like he had been doing.

The room instantly filled with the aura of power. Victoria watched him through shaded and foggy violet blue eyes as she took a step back into the stillness. Wyatt turned the small touch light old fashioned green and blue flower designed lamp on the desk beside her. Then, he regarded her through restrained blue icy eyes.

He didn't know what to do here. He had never been in the same room with a known murderer that he could just not vanquish. That was the problem. He couldn't vanquish her.

As much as he hated to admit it she was beautiful and he liked her. He would never let her know really how he felt if he could help it but he would try to keep it a secret. There also was the main reason that she was dating his little brother. His brother who trusted this girl and had instantly fallen hard for unlike he had ever done in his life.

Wyatt had never seen Chris so happy before. He had never seen his brother in love before either. Chris, for some reason, had always guarded his heart against bringing anyone into their families secret. Wyatt knew why; any mortal inside the family was just immediately sanctioned for death. It was just that simple.

So, when Chris had fallen for her he had let his brother be happy. He had watched from the sidelines when the couple was together and kissing and enjoying being together. He had watched all the small tedious stolen glances that they had exchanged whenever they could and he had seen how good the were together.

Of course, that could spark jealousy in anyone. He just hoped he never did anything about it like his past self had by cursing her to a life without love and an untimely life at that.

He also hoped that he had just been seeing things a few minutes earlier when he had seen his own little brother's girl kill someone. Sure, he could tell it was a demon but it had never been any of their ways to trap the demon, torture him, and then suck the life at of them. The first two had been done before the whole sucking the life out of them he was still a bit shaky on.

"No!" she cried in annoyment at him even suggesting her insanity.

What else could it be? He had heard voices in here when he had finally found his feet nad walked after her. Sure, he had witnessed her murder someone nd sure he believed it was demonic activity, but then he still didn't know.

Ere she was standing before him perfectly fine. They were back into the roles of annoyed acquaintances and she was fine. It was hard after everything he had seen from her to see her murder someone.

He still thought maybe he had seen it in a dream. Maybe, he had just been daydreaming or maybe he was just going crazy. Maybe, his subconscious was trying to make her the enemy in the simplest way by making her a killer so that he wouldn't feel anything for her.

Or maybe she was a murderer and his family was at risk.

Hell, he didn't know what to do about it. He didn't know if he was obviously in love with her still or not. He didn't want to just say 'hey everyone guess what I just say' and blow her cover. Hell, he didn't know if they would believe him. Hell, he didn't want his brother to hate him for telling on her. He knew that would happen.

His brother would accuse him of being jealous or else never really liking Victoria. So then he would just ignore his warning and then Victoria would end up killing him and then where would his little brother be?

She wouldn't hurt nay of them right?

She liked them. She had to. She was on good terms with all of them.

Maybe that was her cover. Many a time evil demons and whatnot had become close to the family in order to destroy it. Why not her?

But the she had the who gratitude of saving her life lives if you counted destroying the little curse from her last lifetime. Heck, she was forever in their service for what they did for her.

She wouldn't hurt Chris either. There was no way. She loved him and he loved her. There was no way she was faking that. They were inseparable.

Or maybe she was getting everyone on her side till she killed everyone slowly. Or maybe she was taking Chris over and possessing him to join her evil side of the force.

Or he was just overreacting.

Either way this sucked ass. He had no idea what to do. Morally, he had to say something. Mentally, he wanted to prove to himself he had say what he had saw but it had been a demon she killed and he no longer was on earth bodily. So, how could he prove to himself he wasn't going crazy?

"Yeah, still not feeling safe." he told her as he looked around the brightly lit room closer and found no one.

Moment took a beat by as he regarded the room and she regarded him. She stuffed her arms over her chest and leaned back slightly in her full blown annoyed to be bothered state of mind. He had seen that pose a million times over whenever he was around.

"Aren't you supposed to be sick or something?" he asked her annoyed profile.

"No, I'm fine now. You all are so overly paranoid in your overreacting over minor health issues." she told him with her head tilted to the side as her pale skin glowed in the bright light.

"That wasn't overreacting that was more like probable cause." he informed her as he looked at a few letters laying unopened on top of the table beside her.

"I was just tired."

"Tired? When you are tired you sleep you don't faint in the middle of a dance club."

"Look, Chris already got on my case, you little minion. What do you want?" she asked as her eyes slit into a glare in front of him. For a second, he could swear that when her voice turned cold and steely edged that her violet eyes had disappeared and her whole eye ad turned black.

"What the hell? I am here to make sure you are okay not to get bitched at. What are you pmsing or something?" he asked as he raised his hands in a 'hey don't hurt me' way.

"Oh, right. Men! Why do you always pull out the whole pmsing thing whenever we get angry as if we as women don't have what it takes to get angry. Ehh. By the way, I am not pmsing. So, never mind that. Where's Chris?" Victoria asked rolling her eyes.

"He's with my mom." Wyatt told her as he looked up from the letters on the desk and then he leaned on the desk. He knew this was going to be awhile.

"What? Why? What's wrong with Piper?" she asked as instant worry spread over her face.

Wyatt hadn't known how exactly it had happened but somehow Piper and Victoria had gotten on good terms. Hell, he could almost consider them friends of sorts. So, it was just weird when Victoria showed so much worry over Piper as if she had known her forever and had the right to.

"She passed out, too. Hence the pattern that is coming to pass between you two which could be demonic. Chris is taking care of her and healing Aunt Phoebe. I, unfortunately, got stuck with you."

"Wow, I feel so loved. Whatever did I do to receive this compassion from the twice- blessed Mr. Wonder boy of the family?"

Wyatt instantly saw his lead way in. He had to take it to see if he could find anything out from it.

"I dunno. Murder anyone lately?" he asked, smugly.

A moment passed between them. Confusion and a recoiling motion came form Victoria's direction as she stared at him speechless for a moment. He didn't how she took it. He didn't know if she knew he knew what she had done, or else she thought he was just being weird and cocky.

"Do demons count?" she finally replied.

As Wyatt watched her regard him and the empty room around them the feelings of uneasiness vapored through the stunned air around them. Just then he got the frazzled message from Chris.

He felt Chris enter his mind for a brief moment and then he herd his brothers words wash over his brain.

"Wyatt, get home quick. We have a problem!" Chris's words echoed through his mind and then he felt his brother let go of their connection.

"Looks like we're being beeped. So let's cut this little verbal abuse short for just this once." he told her after Chris's message evaporated from his mind.

"Ah, yet I was growing so fond of our little chitchat."

"Deal. We have a bigger problem now." he informed her as he got up off of the desk in the backroom.

"Like what?" she asked as she took a step away from him as he took a step towards her.

He took another step towards her and reached out for her hand to hold in his. "Like the innocent we seem to have collected along the way."

"Innocent? Who?"

"I dunno who it is really. It's just the girl who was singing that the demon twins were after."

"Demons? Twins?" she asked as her eyebrow raised. "I missed out on a lot."

"Yeah, you did."

"Lucky me." she replied with a small smirk over her pale lips as she again moved away from him. He gave her an annoyed look as his constant efforts failed to work.

"Will you stop it!" he finally ordered her.

"Stop what?" she asked as she swooped away from his hands again. "What are you trying to do? Don't touch me." she cried as she missed his hand by a few inches.

"Look, I'm not in the mood to play games with you"

"Yeah, well me neither. What's Chris going think when he finds out you're here trying to cop a feel?"

"That's not what I am trying to do here."

"Oh, really. Then, why are you grabbing for me?" she asked as she stopped for a second with her hands on her hips firmly. It was the same stance he had seen his mother take a million times before while she had been in her stubborn state of mind.

"Because we need to orb back to the manor right now, aright?"

He didn't understand why she was being so weird. He just kept trying to get out of his grip like that would do anything. It was like she didn't want to be touched for some reason. Of course, touch was needed if he was going to orb her back to the Manor with him.

"Oh," she said as she stopped for second. "I can blink there. You can orb. We'll get there at the same time. No touching required."

"No, we'll go there together." he disagreed as he tried to grab a hold of her shoulder now.

"Why?"

He's annoyed. Wyatt ran his strong hands through hair dirty blond curled mop of hair and just stared at her with stormy gray blue eyes. He couldn't believe her. If she would just stay in one place for one second that would make this so much easier.

"Chris, huh?" she said as she realized why he was going to orb her to the Manor. "You were sent to baby-sit."

"Look at it however you want to. We still need to get back to the Manor." he told her and tried again.

This time he actually caught her.

As he did, she cried out as if he had just cause her the worst pain and torture for her to ever go through. He couldn't believe what a baby she was acting like..

"Stop being a baby. I didn't even hurt you." he told her.

He said the words, but before his eyes she disappeared into a smoky air. She was gone and the only thing that was left there was the thick air surrounding the area her wrist had once been. He sighed angrily and then orbed back to the Manor.

He couldn't believe she was making this so hard. It would have only been one trip and one orb for them to get where they were going. He wasn't that bad of a guy and he had had orbing down pat since he was a baby. He didn't get why she was just overacting

He still didn't know why as her violet-blue eyes haunted him in the few second it took to orb back. They had been tortured. When she had looked at him he had seen pain and fear and something else he couldn't quite describe.

He orbed into the living room instantly. His family came into focus as he looked around them. Everyone was there and they were staring at him like he was evil. Then, he saw Victoria and she was slightly bent over a few feet in front of him.

A tear a ran down her face as she coughed a bit.

Damn, what got into her he wondered as he shrugged at his family and Chris's questioning looks.


	19. Another Innocent Girl

Piper looked up from her spot lounging on the white couch's arm and noticed Victoria smoke into the room. It was weird. She never had done that before and here she was smoking the whole room up right after Piper had just polished all the wood and swept th day before. Sooner or later she had to give up cleaning up the house because one way or another it would just end up in shambles.

"What the hell?" she mumbled annoyed as she flicked her hands in Victoria's general direction.

Victoria quickly stood up instead of staying hunched over like she had been before and gave a mock smile at them as she stood, "Sorry."

"When did you start doing that?" Piper asked annoyed.

"Yeah, because you literally have to stop that because if you stick with the whole overdramatic smoke up the room entrance we'll just have to give you a fire extinguisher or something." Phoebe said as she waved the smoke away from herself and then coughed for a dramatic touch.

Just then Wyatt orbed in right behind her. He had a half irritated and half worried look on his face. He hadn't been able to get Victoria to stay with him so here he was coming in into the Manor right after her. You'd think that one day they could settle their differences and just stay on semi-good terms.

His worried look faded as he saw Victoria coughing a bit in front of him. He looked at his family in a 'hey, I can't control her' type of look and then he folded his hands deep into the pockets of his blue jeans. Piper's focus went straight back to Victoria from her oldest son. Victoria had been off lately. Why?

"What's with the smoke routine?" she asked her.

"My powers.. They are a bit off right now."

"You could say that again," Wyatt said.

"Victoria, are you sure you're okay?" Chris asked as he walked to her and held her chin up in his grasp to look her in her eyes lovingly. She looked into his forest green eyes with a small smile of reassurance and nodded and then she looked at everyone around her.

"I'm better now." she replied.

"How?" he asked.

"Yeah, that was a bit of a miraculous recovery wouldn't you say?" Wyatt asked as he leaned against the doorway to the sitting room. He still didn't understand why she had went all overboard on going to the Manor separately in the first place. Especially, when she had been so sick earlier. So, the best way for him to get at her for her display of distrust with him was with childish behavior.

She could have gotten herself killed or she could've ended up somewhere else.

Guess who would be blamed for that one? Even if he had tried to stop her if she ended up missing everyone would blame him for it. As if he could get her to do anything. She was against him and she didn't trust him at all. Who's lame brain idea was it for him to just go and take care of her and bring her back to the Manor in the first place?

Oh, wait. It had been his. Damn it, he hated it when his subconscious, and his built in morality ruled over him.

Phoebe flicked an irritated glance in his direction. Of any of them she hated it when he went out of his way just to start some fight with Victoria.

"Shut up, Wyatt." Victoria replied and rolled her eyes as she covered Chris's hand with her own.

"Why? So you can get away without answering any questions? Like how come you are feeling so much better out of no where while a few minutes ago you were almost comatose?" he asked as he folded his arms over his chest as he pursed his lips in annoyment.

"Wyatt, we have better things to worry about right now." Chris told him angrily as he changed the subject.

Chris moved in front of Victoria and blocked her from Wyatt's sight. He had the whole defensive bit down. Wyatt had to give his little brother that. He took a step back and laughed as he looked around the room.

"Are you sure, brother?" Wyatt asked darkly.

"Leave her alone, Wyatt." Chris told him just as darkly.

Everyone in the room stared at the brothers. They both were intensely watching the other for the others next move. Chris was stressed out over having to protect another demon along with deal with the fact that his girlfriend had a possible date with death. Wyatt was just annoyed that she got away with everything. He wanted someone else to voice out the fact that for being horribly weak and sick five minutes earlier she sure was in top notch shape in the health department right now.

Piper worried over her children as she watched them. She could almost see the smoke coming from their heads as anger passed through the room. She exchanged a look with Phoebe and then looked back at her two sons. She couldn't believe that they were behaving like this at a time like this.

She had thought they had gotten over this whole jealousy bit over Victoria before but she guessed not as she watched them.

Wyatt hated himself right then. He didn't know what it was but something brought out his defensiveness with Victoria. Alone they kind of got along but whenever he was in the same room with his family his defensiveness came right out when it came to her.

"Fine. What's our problem now?" he asked, unfolding his arms and watching his brother calm down a bit.

"We have an innocent."

"Like that's new?" he replied and smiled bitterly. "So, tell me who is lucky enough to be our innocent now?"

A shrill girl's scream pitched through the room at the end of his statement. They didn't have to look far to find out who the person was that was screaming. A minute later a girl with long golden curls came running into the room with Leo in tow. Leo tried to persuade her to calm down but she wouldn't hear any of it.

"Look, we are not going to hurt you. You just need to calm down and we'll explain to you what happened." he tried to say to her soothingly.

The lead singer of Red Helter looked around at the packed room.

What she saw didn't help the situation. There was Piper who had her head in her hands, Phoebe who had put her hands to her ears to skip hearing the girl's loud screams, Wyatt who was just staring at them listlessly and slightly confused, Chris who was still holding onto Victoria as he watched in surprise, Victoria who was frowning at the girl in repulsion and annoyment from her outburst, and then there was Leo who had chased her down the stairs trying to calm her the whole way.

"Oh, my god. Are you guys a cult or something? Are you like trying to keep me here against my will? Cause if you are I have a lawyer and my father is really, really rich and he will come after you so you better let me go now while you still have the chance." she told them as she maintained her distance from them and Leo. Then, she saw a small black lucky skeleton head, "Oh my god. You.. You have it's a .. you're gonna... "she cried out as her eyes never left the sight of the skeleton head.

Phoebe looked at the skeleton head and her chocolate brown eyes widened as she realized, "Oh, no, no. No, that is just a..."

She never got to finish her sentence because the lead singer of Red Helter fainted.

"Wow, the nut jobs you guys come up with." Victoria laughed aloud and looked out the window.


	20. Where's Your Head At

_IF THIS DOESN'T MAKE SENSE OR SOETHING IS CUT OUT IN ANY WAY TELL ME. I HATE MY COMPUTER IT'S BEEN ACTING UP LATELY AND PUTTING MY WORD DOCS INTO WORDPAD WHICH SCREWS IT ALL UP FOR SOME REASON. I WENT OVER IT THE FASTEST AND BEST I COULD SO HOEPFULLY ENJOY._

They didn't know what to do. They had all stood there and looked down at the girl for a minute after she had fainted. Sure, they had dealt with innocents before but no one like her. Innocents that were either willing, scared at first but accepting of them, or against magic until they all had proved the innocent that they were on their side.

This innocent hadn't really been relieved to find herself alive and well. She had just ran around the house screaming bloody murder, then she had threatened exposing them as a cult as well as possibly suing them for kidnapping her, and then she had fainted on top of everything.

She sure was a winner.

This was not at all like any of them had planned the evening to go when they had initially brought her back to the house to be more protected.

They could only hope the neighbors hadn't heard her.

Of course, after decades of neighbors living next door to a constantly paranormally assaulted house as well as a few thousands demons that appeared on every occasion the Charmed Ones had been lucky not having that many snoopy neighbors as of yet.

"Okay, so what set her off?"Piper asked her family tiredly as she flicked her wrist in the girl's crumpled direction where Wyatt had picked her up carefully and laid her on the white couch.

"I think it was the lucky skeleton head the elves sent us for the baby." Phoebe replied timidly knowing that Piper was about to have a major spaz attack for it still being out in the open.

"Oh, great. That's just peachy. Hold on a second. I thought I said to put everything like that in the basement so something like this wouldn't happen in the first place!" Piper cried as she looked over at the freaky skeleton head that Phoebe has pointed at.

She had never understood all the baby gifts in the first place. It didn't help that she had no place to put them in the already near crowded house. Piper had never understood really how elves thought a creepy black colored Cyclops skeleton head would be the prefect baby gift for a baby either. She thought a perfect gift would be a blanket or a new stroller, but no they were all about giving the baby some of the scariest..not to mention the most unsanitary things for gifts.

"Well, maybe somebody just forgot with all the craziness always happening around here." Phoebe replied as she risked a glance at both her nephews to see who the guilty culprit was. Wyatt seemed unfazed by it as he watched the innocent sleeping peacefully beside him. While, Chris seemed a bit uneasy over the matter.

"Chris!"

"Hey, I'm sorry I forgot"

"Chris, when I ask you to do something I would appreciate it if you would do it. Especially, since I don't ask for much from you in the first place."

"Alright, already I get it. How was I to know we were going to have a psychotically paranoid innocent in our midst?" he cried out in self defense.

"If that's the right terminology for her in the first place." Victoria added in with a twisted smile washing over her lips.

"Hey, now. If you were coming into this house without any knowledge of magic in the first place you would have acted the same way."Phoebe reprimanded her as she watched the small fight between Chris and a very tired Piper move along.

"Right." Victoria drawled. "I would run in circles like an chicken who's head was just chopped off and scream just like a banshee for the hell of it, then I would threaten you with my big, scary, wealthy father and my own private lawyer without any knowledge of why I am here in the first place let alone ignore the fact that my life was somehow saved. All because I am a rocket scientist. Right."

"I'm not saying she had any precedent for what she said I am just saying I can identify with it. We were all like that when we first received our powers. "Phoebe replied as she cast a hand in a small circle around the room that was primarily filled with innately magical beings of light.

"Hey, you guys what the hell are you doing down there?" a wary tired voice called from the hallway.

Everyone looked to see Paige. Paige slowly was coming down the staircase as she rubbed her wary brown bloodshot eyes to see the world around her better. She had on a faded red tank top and some old slightly hole infested pair of dark blue sweat pants as her pajamas. Her dark brown hair was going in a few unreasonable directions from bed head and she was clearly not in the best of moods.

"Oh, sweetie did we wake you" Phoebe asked as she bit her lip.

"Uh, no. Not unless you were that someone screeching like a lunatic that woke me up."Paige replied leaning against the doorway to the sitting room.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that."Piper told her youngest sister as she stood up on her very sore feet. Piper touched her bulging belly for a second as she got to her feet from leaning against the white couches arm warily. She felt as tired and incoherent as Paige looked at the moment.

"We have been having a little bit of difficulty with our innocent."Leo told his sister in law.

"Yeah, that would be our technical difficulty." Victoria replied pointing at the unconscious girl on the couch. "Come join the circus for free. Careful though. Don't touch her she might bite you."

Chris tried to stop her in a soft voice as he threw out his nickname for her. "Tora."

"Hey, I'm sorry I just have had a bit of a long day and adding this prep to it isn't scoring any brownie points with me right now." Victoria told him.

"I agree." Piper agreed. "What are we supposed to do with her?"

"You guys have had innocents before. I believe you all know how to handle this."

Leo replied as he watched his tired wife.

"Leo, we had innocents before that needed our help. Whenever have we had a trust fund baby that doesn't know she almost died and we saved her from danger? Who, by the way, just threatened legal action on us that once it hits channel one news we're screwed." Piper told her husband throwing her hands in panicked circles of nervous energy as she talked.

"You guys, she's like any other innocent. She just.. Panicked alright? Give her a chance." Leo told them all as they watched in a tired rebellion.

"You think she will calm down once she wakes up?"Phoebe asked him hopefully.

Leo took a moment and watched the girl lying on the couch as he thought about the question and then he finally answered. "Not really, but try to reason with her."

"Hold on a second, buster. That sounds like a 'I have to go meet with the Elders'

sentence." Piper interrupted him in complete annoyance as she poked him in the chest with her hand.

"It is." Leo responded as he went over to his wife and put his hands on her shoulders as he looked deep into her soft brown eyes. "Piper, I will be back here as soon as I can. It sounds important. Who knows it might be about her."

"Then, take her with you." Piper said as she joined his train of thought. "Don't you have some kind of calming affect up there that'll tranquilize her until we figure this out?"

"Or some magic that will shut her viceroy down?" Paige asked.

"Piper, it's against the rules."

"Leo, you are an Elder now. Screw the rules."Piper reminded her husband intensely with a growl.

"Piper," Leo tried.

"Leo, what do we do if we can't talk sense into her? I mean you have the whole calming effect on everyone and she resisted that. What do we do if she wakes up and goes nutty?"

Phoebe asked as tried to help Piper's fight.

"She's a victim not an enemy."

"Oh, really, cause she was spouting a threat about a lawyer about a minute ago or have you forgotten?"Piper replied annoyed.

"I'll be back as soon as I can."Leo said as he looked up at the ceiling expectantly. Piper could tell her husband was in a hurry and that she wasn't going to win this fight. As much as she wanted a vacation away from the supernatural, she knew her own husband wouldn't go off and baby-sit their innocent anytime soon.

"Fine. Go do your Elder thing just hurry up." Piper replied as she gave up and folded her arms over chest and turned away from fighting Leo.

Leo frowned at her. He didn't know what to say. He knew she didn't want to deal with this and that she was tired. He also knew he had to get up to the Elders since something important was about to happen that they needed to tell him about. So he orbed away from the Manor and his family.

"Typical," Chris said.

"Give him a break he's got a responsibility to us as well as the world." Wyatt told his brother in frustration.

"Yeah, well that's nice. All he does is discuss stuff. Has he ever taken action?" Chris asked, annoyed.

Piper looked over at Chris and sighed. She saw in him as the same young man that had came to her from the future so long ago. She saw in him the sadness, the resentment to the world, and the feeling of being number two in his own father's priorities.

Leo had done something once. He had been so consumed by rage and revenge that when Chris had been murdered by Gideon. Gideon, who had been all of their ally as well as trusted friend, had been the one after Wyatt the whole time. Gideon had tried to take Wyatt away from his own family to kill him and Chris hadn't let him without a fight. Of course, Chris had died saving his own brother in that fight.

Leo had killed Gideon then. He had done it for the world. He had done it for his family and he had done it mostly for Chris.

Chris would never know that though. Piper had made sure that everyone in the family had to keep it a secret. It didn't happen anymore like it had before. The future had been changed thanks to Chris. So no one had to know what had happened in the past. Even if it explained everything in the present.

Piper slowly started for the doorway of the room feeling as if she were slowly being buried alive. At that moment she had to get out of there. She had to get some air and be away from everyone for one second or else she might do something that her own sons would never understand.

One thing she knew for sure too about her sons was the fact that they had Halliwell blood in them. Which meant, they would find a way to figure out what was troubling her and then their little secret would come out and she didn't want it too.

It had been hard enough trying to deal with it when it happened so dealing with it now would never help matters. It would only complicate things further.

"Mom?" Wyatt asked as he saw her start to leave the room.

She looked over at Chris though clearly saddened and said. "Your dad has done a lot for us as well as for the world. Cut him a break now and then, alright?"

"Piper?" Phoebe asked.

Piper knew Phoebe could tell what was coming to the surface. She knew her sister wanted to be there for her, but she couldn't right now. She had to be alone and if Phoebe did come along for the ride then her sons would start to wonder about it.

"I'm fine I just need a second. You guys can hold down the fort for a minute right?"

Piper asked with small smile.

"I guess. "Phoebe replied uneasily as she stayed in her spot sitting in a chair crossed legged and wanting to comfort fatigued sister, but couldn't.

Piper nodded and then left the room. Paige entered it as she did and looked down at the girl lying peacefully on the couch.

"Is she wearing Armani?"she cried.

"Yeah," Phoebe replied shaking her head. "That dress let alone those shoes would sum up the amount of money that I will ever see in a lifetime."

"Preaching to the choir."Paige said. "So what do we know about her?"

"She was singing at P3 and a demon threw a energy ball at her."Wyatt informed Paige since no one really jumped to offer the information. " She somehow survived it and came to us. We healed her, she woke up, she screamed bloody murder, mom doesn't know what to do with her, and then you came into the picture."

"It's not that she doesn't know what to do with her. Piper is just tired. She was sick earlier and she passed out and then she was dizzy for awhile." Phoebe told them confidentially.

"Well, if I was hormonal I wouldn't either."Paige responded as she plopped into a chair nearby.

"Well, that's not all" Phoebe replied as she leaned forward in her own chair as if to start telling a ghost story to a group of excited camp goers.

"What do you mean?"Wyatt asked as he watched his aunt clasp and unclasp her hands together nervously.

"That really doesn't sound good."Chris added.

"Chris, whenever is it a good thing?"Victoria asked him lightly.

"Shhh. I wanna know."Paige shushed them with a wave of her hand.

"Okay, well, when she fainted I ended up having a premonition."

"Past, present, or future?"Paige asked.

"Definite future."Phoebe responded staring at Paige as she told her the news. "Piper was there in my premonition and she was having the baby. She was in a lot of pain.."

"No," Chris said angrily as he realized instantly where it was going.

"No way. Mom is fine. She's not.."Wyatt said.

"She died in my premonition."Phoebe ended.

"Well, we'll change it. We'll fix it. There's no way we are going to let Piper die."Paige said flabbergasted.

"I know. We just. We have to be careful."Phoebe added.

"So, she just died of child birth?"Victoria asked in a weird calm.

Of all things for the oldest most strongest Charmed One to die from she had never expected it to be child birth. Killed by her own child? That was just weird.

"I dunno. She was in a lot of pain in my premonition. I think there might have been something wrong with the labor or something." Phoebe informed them as she tried to figure out her premonition.

"Did you tell her?"Paige asked.

"Are you kidding? Uh, no. Did you see her right now? She's tired and she needs to rest. If I had told her that she was going to die in child birth then she would worry about it forever. She wouldn't rest and she could make things worse not to mention..."Phoebe broke off.

"Not to mention what?"Wyatt asked as he folded his arms over his chest as he shut the world out.

There was no way he was just going to lose his mother. He cared about her too much to lose her now. Plus, she was going to have a baby. The baby needed her just as much as any of them did. Maybe, even more.

"She might go back into the whole will and testament kick again."Phoebe replied.

"Oh, yeah."Paige said as she remembered the last time Piper had been on that kick.

Leo had been hesitant about it. Leo hadn't ever wanted to deal with anything like a legal document let alone his own wife dying on him. He hadn't wanted to sign the will because then it would be final. Then, he had to accept losing his wife one day and for awhile there he had been against it.

"Yeah, and I am not watching her go through with that again. I'm not going to watch her be tormented again while she is knowing there is a possibility she would die this time round."Phoebe whispered softly.

She had never thought of Piper dying. Sure, she knew it would happen one day, but it hadn't yet. They all had had so many different hit and misses with death. Prue hadn't been able to stop it from taking her away. Piper, though, Piper was the one who held the family together. She was strong and she always had been strong. She had always been the quiet strong one that they all took for advantage.

Phoebe didn't think she could get over losing another sister. She didn't think that she could deal with becoming the leader of the family either.

"Wait, when was the last time she had the will done?" Paige asked out of no where.

"Around Wyatt being born."

"So, Chris isn't even in it?" Paige asked.

"I don' t believe this! You guys, I can't believe you are talking about this. That's my mother you are talking about! There is no way I am going to let her die now. No way in hell." Wyatt cried out in frustration.

Who cared about wills? Who cared who was on the will? He cared about his mother. Right now he cared mostly about keeping her alive. So, to hell about caring about the will. He wanted to save his mother.

"What do we do then?" Chris asked. "Isn't fighting with death a no win situation?"

"I can't believe you are saying that. It's our mom we are talking about here." Wyatt said as he shook in frustration.

"Wyatt, he didn't mean that." Victoria started softly as she saw him start to spaz out. She had seen it before in her last life and no matter how much he had changed she knew it wasn't a good thing. Especially, with how powerful he was in this life.

"Stay out of this." Wyatt told her threateningly.

"Hey," Paige started as she saw how affected her oldest nephew was by this conversation.

"Don' t talk to her that way." Chris warned his brother angrily.

"This isn't between her and me this is about our mother." Wyatt told his brother as he looked at him evenly.

"I know. Don't you think I know that? Don't you think I want to save her?" Chris spazzed. "I love her too. But I am willing to admit I don't know what to do here. This is death we are talking about. I am all about saving mom. I just don't know if we can. You have heard all the stories, too. Don't act like I am being insensitive. I am going to fight to keep her alive and I am going to save her if I can. But you know death is more major enemy for us then any demon we come across is. We can't beat death, Wyatt. Only he can beat us." Chris told his brother

"I know. But if I know one thing for sure there is always a way to get around everything. And I'm going to find it."Wyatt insisted.

"Find what?" Piper asked as she came back into the room holding a cup of warm milk in one hand and a very odd looking sandwich in the other.


	21. Live Undead

Chris couldn't sleep well . He could sometimes. It was more like a toss, turn, and sleep ordeal. He hadn't been able to sleep all night. Here he was just trying to deal with it all.

His mother was set to die. Phoebe's premonition had said that. His mother could die soon and leave him and his brother alone.

At first he had been in denial of it all. Wyatt hadn't. Boy, he had went over the top hysterical when he had heard about the premonition. Chris, well he had been a little late.

His mother. The person he loved, who had taken care of him his whole life and had been there for him whenever he had needed it ... might die. It was just too weird. Here he was stuck knowing this and knowing he couldn't tell his mother.

No, they had all agreed she shouldn't know. It would put her in danger if she reacted badly to it and the stress might hurt her or the baby. He didn't want that over his head and he knew his mother might figure it out sooner or later when everyone started coddling her.

So, they had all gone to bed. Everyone except him. He had stayed downstairs where he and Victoria had pulled the sofa's mattress create an insta-bed and here they were. She was lying in his arm sleeping. Sometimes it was fitfully and sometimes she looked peaceful. He didn't bother her as she laid on the bed beside him. He only watched her sleep feeling more lonely then he thought humanly possible.

He wished she were awake so he could talk to her about everything. He wished he could vent with her about how death always got in the way, of how he hated Wyatt for being such a prick towards her, and of how he didn't want his mother to die. He couldn't though because she was asleep. Which, for being Victoria, was something she rarely did.

After the day they had with the demon attack and her weak fit he didn't want to wake her.

Her weak fit. That had been odd. He didn't want the admit that Wyatt had made sense when he had sarcastically said it was a 'miraculous recovery'. It was true though. When he had been with her she had been dizzy and she hadn't been able to stand successfully.

Then, he had left for a few minutes to vanquish the ambiguously gay duo and then out of no where she was all better. She was using her magic to transport herself home and she was standing on her own two feet perfectly fine. It was just a little weird that her symptoms were completely waxed away. Hell, she had been in good form about making fun of their innocent, too.

God, their innocent. What were they going to do with her? She hadn't woken up yet. He was just waiting for her to scream in the middle of the night and wake everyone up all over again. He hoped she at least slept through the night for her sake at least because his mother hormonally being woken from a deep sleep could vanquish anyone's ass.

He was happy that Wyatt had taken over watching for the girl. Right now she was safe and tucked away in Wyatt's room on Chris's bed. Of course, he was a little possessive on the bed part but he couldn't complain because it only gave him an excuse to be lying down here alone on the couch with Victoria.

Who was beautiful even in her sleep.

She was just a mystery to him still. He had known her for a few months now and she was a complete mystery. At times he thought he knew her so well and other times it was like she was a different person. Maybe, that's why Wyatt didn't trust or like her or whatever Wyatt felt towards her because Chris really didn't know anymore.

Of course, near death and replaying curse every lifetime could affect anyone.

Death.. was there a way to defeat him? He hoped. He had to save his mother. He wouldn't let her die. It wasn't her time. She was still young. He wasn't going to let her go if he could help it.

Maybe, there was a way that the power of three and also Wyatt's, Victoria's, and his powers could combine and stop Death from taking her. Would that set off the future? A chain of new events? Or would they only piss death off a bit more?

Chris turned on his side and stared out the window at the moonlight for a moment. He couldn't help it . He couldn't kill Death. He couldn't stop Death. Death could kill him though. He couldn't stop Death alone and that was the problem. He had heard of Phoebe trying to do it once before and it never worked out.

Even Paige had made a haywire spell once and it had ended up causing no one to die. Then, Death had been really pissed.

Chris tried to push all of his thoughts and worries out of his head It was hard to do but he slowly did it. If anything at all was needed it was some sleep. He could figure something out tomorrow after he had rested and had a few moments of peace.

He moved over to Victoria a little and leaned against her side as he breathed in the sweet raspberry perfume she was wearing.

Chris closed his eyes and took a few breaths and then he was out in an instant.

It all started out so simply. She was walking down a long brightly light glass hallway that was filled with memories. The glass was wavy and it looked like it had been there for ages. It was stained in certain areas and some places were splashed with brightly lit colors that flamed up. At first, she had thought they were her own memories until she caught a few memories that Chris was in that she wasn't any part of.

His memories swept back and forth in every direction as they popped out at her like a 3-d hologram. She walked farther backwards down the hallway to see him growing younger before her eyes.

She smiled as she saw him with bushy bleached dirty blond hair in a bowl cut and saw him as he grew younger and younger. It was nice to see him younger; it was nice to see him before he had the whole weight of the world on his shoulders. It was nice to see him when he had been slightly normal kid playing baseball at the park or singing along to the oldies from before the turn of the century.

He was ten and he was playing baseball for the first time with his encouraging dad before Leo's hair had turned white, he was five and going to kindergarten for the first time in his life and his shoe laces were untied and he was nervous because all the big kids around him knew how to tie them while he didn't, and then he was a baby opening his crystal green eyes for the first time.

It was so surreal and so beautiful to see everything. It was like a collage. She had never thought of life being a collage before, but here it was lying out there in front of her. She was seeing a part of Chris now that not many people ever did see. She was feeling things he hadn't felt in ages and probably barely remembered himself. She was seeing memories he had kept locked up for ages.

She thought that his memories would all end with his birth. She thought she was done walking down the color glazed hallway of glass, but then the gleaming golden lit hallway turned black. Shadows cascaded over the walls like black toxic water falling down in a hurricane's rainstorm. A coldness and fear that was not apart of his other memories pierced through her heart as she stopped in her tracks and looked around her.

She had a feeling this was not a place she was meant to discover.

Here the memories were covered with a black film that ran like some form of goo form the ceiling if that existed. There was a chill in the air that never faded as she started to walk again because her own curiosity took over. She needed to know what this was. She needed to know what this meant.

She had to go straight up to a door to see inside. Everything was dark and so unloved here. Roses that were growing on the side of the wall were a dully black color, they were giving off a steely smell, and the dead petals that laid all over the floor were ashes that sparked up as the memories cascaded to light the doorway she was touching carefully.

This was unfamiliar. The Chris see saw here was different. He held a secret and a hardness and a pain that she didn't know about. He was carrying it with him and he didn't dare tell anyone.

She saw him and she saw Wyatt together here. They were still brothers, but even she could tell the difference. Here they were enemies. She saw the hate filled expressions pass through Chris's face as he watched his brother move around the attic of the Manor as he ordered a bunch of gray suited men to do something.

Since when did Chris hate his own brother? Since when did Wyatt have minions? Since when did Wyatt even start wearing black as his signature color?

There were no Charmed Ones here in this dark place that she was walking through. There was only Wyatt for Chris to hold onto as family. Here, Wyatt was wearing black colors and had minions that did everything he said as if he were their god. Here, she knew he was evil.

She guessed Wyatt never really had changed much.

Victoria stepped away from the weird scene unfolding out in front of her. This was not he place she knew. This was a place that didn't exits. It wasn't right here. She didn't like this place at all.

She looked down the hall and then touched another black filmed door and saw a darkness brimming around the memory it enclosed. Then blue clouds surrounded the memory as she leaned into the doorway more to see everything become real and alive and breathing for her.

Here she saw Chris sitting down at a crumbling park stone bench as he looked into another girl's eyes. This girl was a stranger to her. This girl was strong and powerful in this world. He loved her in this world.

"Will you marry me?" Chris asked the girl with a small smile and looked deep into her dark eyes.

" You're asking me now?" the girl asked him incredulously.

Victoria felt like a peeping tom as she felt the deep secrecy to this very moment etched in time. Whatever time it was. Here Chris loved this girl and they were perfect for each other.

Here Chris was in love with this girl. This girl who she could easily relate too since at that moment the look of incredulous wonderment passed over the girl's pretty slightly exotic looking features. Victoria thought that if Chris were to ask her here and now she would probably agree to marrying him after thinking he was insane agreed.

What she saw around her in the background of what Chris was hoping was a romantic spot was a wasteland. This was the place dreams were not made of.

This was a nightmare place.

Somehow though Chris saw something more to this place and this time then she did. Chris seemed to believe it was all going to be okay. Insane, was all Victoria thought as she watched the couple sitting on the bench just a little bit jealousy of the girl he was proposing to as she watched Chris wait for the answer.

No matter where he was. No matter what time he was in he still was a romantic.

" Mm-hmm." Chris replied.

" Here?" was the exact answer the girl uttered in disbelief that Victoria could understand quite easily.

" This is still our spot, Bianca. No matter what he's done to it. Marry me."

By the sudden undercurrent of anger Victoria she heard from Chris she knew who 'he' was. It was Wyatt. He had somehow destroyed their love for each other in this life. Hell, he had somehow destroyed Chris's life as well as the world around them. Surprisingly, in every lifetime it seemed Wyatt was either jealous or very willing to see his brother unhappy and alone instead of with the girl he loved.

She guessed some things never changed yet again.

" On one condition. You come back to me, safely." the girl named Bianca told him sincerely as they stared deeply into each other's eyes.

Whatever was happening now was big. Victoria could tell this. This had a lot more to do with something else was going on in their secrecy then what was being let on. She watched from her corner in the hallway as Chris waited to hear her ultimatum.

"Have I ever let you down before?" he asked her as he pulled her into a kiss.

Feeling a lot more like a peeping tom now Victoria stepped away from the memory. Here she was in this dark hall of memories. She didn't understand how it was apart of Chris's memories though. Here Chris's anyway. It was the right time and it was him, but it wasn't. He was harder here and he had a burden no one else had.

Hell, Wyatt was even pure evil here.

So how could he have memories from a time that seemed to be going on at this very moment and yet he wasn't living this life?

Unless there were more secrets to the family of Charmed Ones then was let on.

She decided to understand this world better and walked down another hallway.

This one was a dull red color. She felt like she was trapped inside a lava lamp as she gained purchase to the place. There was only one door here at the end of the hall. As she got closer she felt her heart beat slow down more then it would regularly and she felt an awkward sealed quality to this memory as if it were the last. As if it were Chris's last memory.

Inside, she knew it was.

In the time Chris had lived in before. Maybe it was a different timeline or something had changed that future for him somehow, but here she felt the finality of his life as she touched the blue colored door.

It glowed a white color as she touched it lightly and then it opened to suck her into it.

She was inside Piper's room. Leo was there and he was looking down at Chris. She looked back at the doorway to the room and saw Paige who was tearing up as she leaned against it. Chris was lying on the bed between them. He was hurt and his breathing was slowing along with his heartbeat. Something big had happened and there was no way to save him.

Leo was losing his son. Leo was drawn over something. Chris was hurt and he was trying to do the right thing. He was scared ...she could tell and she knew he wanted to be with someone. He wanted his father but Leo had to do something important to fix everything.

Victoria stepped closer to see Chris's forest green eyes chip as he stared up at is father lovingly.

"Chris?" Leo said softly as he looked down at his son's face.

Chris used the last strength he could find in himself as he turned his heavy head to see his father hovering lovingly and painfully over him and then he weakly said, "Hey."

Leo finally kneeled down right beside Piper's bed. He didn't move any closer as he stared at his son. Pain was evident as he realized the mortality of Chris's wound.

"Hey. I'm here now. You can ... Hold on, ok? Hold on . Hold on. I'm here," he aid as he brushed his youngest sons hair out of his sweaty face as his heart broke and then he said, "You can hold on, okay?"

Chris nodded. Even now she knew he knew he was going to die. Something was so final about this. Something was still hanging in the air between them. He was trying to be the martyr.

The bond Leo and Chris had in this timeline wasn't like the one they had in the one she was apart of. They had finally gotten along and gotten to understood each other now. Now, it was being taken away.

"Don't give up, okay?" Leo said and watched Chris nod painfully apparent he was dying.

"You, either. "Chris replied heavily. His breathing was so hard for him now and his voice sounded so heavy. He looked away for a second. His breathing slowly stopped as he fell into a deep sleep that she knew not even he could wake up from.

His body vanished from the room leaving Leo alone in it as she watched him grieve for his dead son.

He was dead. He was only 22. He was young and he had died to save his family no less. Some things didn't change.

"No, no, no. Please ... No." Leo whispered as he laid his head on the bed and moved his arm over the place Chris's body had been before it diapered.

She didn't stay long in this memory though. She was thrown out of that memory as a preying pain split through her head. She cried out and opened her eyes to see dawn lighting the red curtains.

She realized where she was as she felt heavy arms laying over top of her move a little as the real world came back to her. She was in the Manors sitting room lying on a bumpy mattress and Chris was holding her. They had fallen asleep on the couch.

"You're a ghost," she whispered uneasily to Chris as he slowly opened his tired green eyes to her.

"Huh?" he asked.


	22. Freaky Friday Alien Abduction

Victoria realized that she had spoken what she had just figured out from her dream aloud. Oh, crap, she thought as she watched Chris as his lazy eyes turned to a shocked green as they froze on hers and her words made sense to his half asleep mind.

She had done it now. There was no way she could just be like 'Oh, I was just kidding. Silly me' after she had just said he was a ghost. Hell, if there was any truth to what she had just somehow witnessed- which if her new power was still in action like she believed it was- then Chris really had died. Which would mean he should be dead right now and not alive and lying right next to her.

It didn't make any sense to her. Maybe, she qas going crazy, or maybe it was a secret that was kept even from him.

Chris had never said anything to hit her off on the whole living ghost thing so she had a feeling it had to be a little bit confidential to him too. Plus, he was so not like this Chris that she had just witnessed die right in front of her eyes. That Chris had been burdened heavily and sad and crippled by his own personal private agenda to save his family. The Chris she knew now barely was burdened by anything as horrific as the future world she had been given a glance at, and he didn't have that sad brooding look that the other had had.

Of course, Chris didn't have a beautiful magical fiancé by the name of Bianca either.

She pushed her slight jealousy and confusion aside on the whole subject of Bianca, Chris, and marriage and tried to reason out why Chris didn't know.

Knowing the Charmed Ones, Chris's whole short life in the past probably had been a hush hush operation between them. Hell, Victoria didn't blame them. If what she had witnessed actually had happened she would never know how to tell her own kid that he had come back from some horrible future where his brother was an evil tyrant and in doing so his destiny was to be killed off in the past that he was so desperately trying to save for the sake of everyone's future.

Hell, it didn't seem right for a Charmed One let alone her son to be able to just die that easily. Unless, of course, the Elders had had something to do with that.

Until she got close enough to ask someone about it she didn't know what exactly she could possibly do with this newfound information about Chris. Except be quiet and play stupid for now.

Chris's green emerald colored eyes opened wider as he realized what she had said and he burst awake in a sitting position on the pulled out bumpy mattress, "Ghost? How? Where? Why?"

Victoria gaped at him a moment not knowing what to say to him. Right now, she didn't know if what she had saw in her dream.. Her premonition.. Whatever it was... was real or not. If it was it was just so very creepy to know that her own boyfriend wasn't supposed to be alive and that he had basically already kind of died.

Which meant that she was dating a ghost, or someone that was undead.

"Oh, no." she mumbled as she sat up with him and rubbed her eyes tiredly as the sunlight glinted into her eyes blinding her for a moment.

"What?" he asked.

She couldn't help it. As soon as her eyesight came back she saw a completely frazzled looking Chris. His hair was everywhere. It was sticking up in weird positions on his head giving him antlers or devil horns maybe and his whole worried facial expression just hit her hard as she started to laugh. She giggled trying not to as he watched her in a grumpy stupor.

"You lied to me?" he asked her intensely. Before she could get away he attacked her and started tickling her all over her stomach and her arms as she flailed around trapped. It was times like these where the world didn't matter to them as she grabbed a hold of a pillow beside her and wacked him in the head with it.

Chris groaned as he pulled her up over his broad chest and held her close over top of him with his arms covering her weak attempts at trying to get away. She kept laughing as he kissed the back of her neck and then rested his chin on her shoulder lightly. The feel of his warm skin settled over hers as she let him win this fight.

"You tried to give me heart attack." he grumbled into her ear as she smiled with her eyes closed to the world around them and let his words settle over her like a blanket on a cold winter night.

She loved him. Se couldn't help it. She couldn't help feeling completely paralyzed as well as happy as she laid over top of him and gave in to being there. He was the first person to ever really make her feel like they were the only two people in the world that mattered as well as existed. It was just perfect this way.

She smiled as she stayed in his warm arms. The gold sunlight glinted around them like shafting meteor showers of lights as they panickly raced into place. The shafts of sunshine blew onto them and whirled around them creating golden light shafts as well as shadows to envelope them in a tableau of light. Victoria's reddish-brown curls fell around her pale face concealing her bright smile as well as falling to tickle over Chris's arms holding her.

Chris just held onto her. It was times like these for him that he got to be with Victoria and had possession over her completely in their peaceful tranquility.

Times like these were scarce and rare in between.

"You overreacted." she mumbled back to him sleepily.

"Right. Then, why did you say something about a ghost?" he asked her.

"I uh..." she said not coming up with anything off of the top of her head as an excuse. The whole time she just wanted to fall asleep in his arms again.

"So, then tell me what's wrong?" he asked her as he found her hands and started intertwining his with hers.

"I just had a weird dream." she told him as she opened her violet-blue eyes back up to the way too bright world of sunlight around them.

"Oh, yeah. Care to tell."

"Hmmm." she mumbled again trying to get comfy again so she could fall back asleep but he bit her shoulder gently to keep her awake.

"Come on. You're not getting out of this one so easily. "he told her firmly.

"Yeah... fine, you biter," she replied.

She would tell him sooner or later. She had to. She owed him that. Hell, his family owed him that, but she wasn't about to be the first one to spout off all this information if she didn't know if it was just a dream or if it was really real.

If it was a dream then it was one sure hellfire of a dream.

"I'm all ears." he reminded her.

"Okay, okay. I had this horrible nightmare. You were in it..." she started.

"And.. What I bit the big one? I married a warlock? Wyatt and I finally got along?" Chris asked sarcastically as his arms developed her as he spouted out ideas.

Well, let's see. You got the first one right. You sure did bite the big one only not in the right time. You kind of were engaged to a powerful being. Victoria didn't know if Bianca was evil or not since she hadn't exactly been told on that one. Hell, she didn't know exactly how to take it even .

It felt like he had cheated on her in a way with that girl. Of course, that girl didn't exist in his life in this timeline so she didn't get it. She didn't want to be jealous of some girl who didn't matter to him now, but here she was being jealous.

Maybe, it was because they had been happy together. If that could be possible in the time and place Victoria had seen them both in. Maybe, it was because even in that horrible place in time they were still together and happy and peaceful and in love.

She pressed the matter out of her head with a grim smile. Chris's last suggestion over him and Wyatt getting along filled her mind as she breathed in a long breath of air.

Oh and yeah, Wyatt and he just never would get along. It just wasn't written in the stars for them. Too bad for Chris it might have saved his life in that alternate reality, timeline, or whatever.

"Oh, nothing that big." she lied to him lightly.

"Damn I was hoping for a miracle," he said to her not at all giving up on answers.

"Yeah, it was all really horrible though. It was like a nightmare. You were in it and I was in it and everyone else was there." she told him as she smiled knowing where she was going to go with her nightmare to get Chris off of her case for now.

"Should I get the popcorn now?"

"Why?" she asked.

"Cause this is starting to sound like an epic." Chris told her sarcastically.

"Liar . Take that back!" she giggled and flicked him. He went to flick her back but she somehow had had enough time to distract him in order for her to roll over him so that she was facing him now. From there she sat on top of him and laughed as if she had won the battle.

"Fine. I have shut up. Continue." he replied in defeat as he placed his arms behind his head.

"Finally. If there will be no more interruptions I shall continue." she replied, smugly as she folded her arms and waited for him to say something.

He only made an innocent face at her that she had come so accustomed to over the short time that they had been together. She rolled her blue-violet eyes at him and again began.

"Then, there was this girl.. A blond of all things. And she was a preppy trust fund baby!"

Just as Victoria started to recap her 'nightmare' Leigh groaned. She was squished on her one side in the bed and she didn't like it. She lazily turned onto her other side on the bed to get her head out of the small portal of sunlight that had fixated itself on her face. She wanted to sleep. She liked to sleep. She wanted her beauty sleep.

Leigh yawned heavily and pulled her blankets over her body and sneezed. Oh, that's just not right.

Leigh quickly pulled herself up to a sitting position on the bed. To the causal viewer she looked like one of the living dead zombies pulling herself out of the grave. Her blond ringlets were flying everywhere around her in the sunlight, her blue eyes were all squinting, and her mouth was trembling in a constant yawn.

Her eyes didn't stay open as she looked at the room around her through a small crack in the blanket shrouding her body. She saw another bed a few feet from hers, she saw a mess of clothes on the floor, and she saw pictures of some bimbo singers on the wall. Leigh flew back onto the bed and groaned again as she pulled the covers to her in her cold state of mind.

It was just too early. She didn't want to wake up. Screw school she didn't need an education all she needed was to become a famous singer and sing her life away. She could live out of a suitcase whether her dad believed it or not.

All she needed in that suitcase were some Gucci shoes, some of her favorite Tommy Hilfiger jeans, all her high maintenance hair care/makeup/bath products and she would be fine. Of course, she would just have to steal her dad's maid, Rosalyn, because she was a genius when it came to hair and she was really good at cleaning up after Leigh. Yep, Rosalyn would be a must.

Yep, and she would have to take her favorite $1,000 sheets and pillows with her because she would never be able to be on the road or in a crappy motel without them. Yep, she had it all planned out. All she needed now was to be famous and she would be fine.

Hold on a sec, something was off. She opened her blue eyes to the world beneath the blankets that she was cuddling to her body and realized something was really off.

The covers were rough on her skin unlike the silkiness she was used to at home and they were old. The blanket over top of the sheet wasn't even a color she liked. It was like dark green so unlike her brightly colored pop star pink bedroom.

Oh my god. Oh my god, where am I? She thought as her blue china eyes grew to the size of saucers and she swallowed heavily.

The smell of the blankets weren't even a girls. They were a guys. A very nice smelling guy.. MMM. She thought as she smelled them and wafted in the smell of Axe. She loved the cologne for Axe. It didn't matter that it was cheap as hell it smelled ten times better then any Tommy Hilfiger brand or whatever for a guy.

"Mmmm." she verbalized her happiness for a second more.

Hold on, wait a second. She started panicking as she realized that she shouldn't be in some guys bedroom She wasn't supposed to be here. She hadn't been around any guys to be here last night.

Wait, what had she done last night?

A big black blank came to mind as she made sure she was fully clothed. Which she was so that ruled out anything she may be regretting about now. She looked around the room, but saw no one as she started to hyperventilate.

Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god, were the only words that kept repeating inside of her mind as she poked her head out of her covers a little bit more.

Then, one of the hottest most built tanned guys entered the room. He was only wearing a white towel! Water from the shower he had just taken was glistening in his hair as he passed through the messy room as if this were a normal everyday occurrence. Wow, he was hot.

Leigh gaped at him as he looked for some clean clothes by sniffing the pile on the floor and felt like melting.

"Oh god. The horrors." Chris cried out as Victoria leaned down over him and kissed him softly on his mouth after telling him of the evil preppy girl in her nightmare.

"And she screamed and her scream was like this deafening hi-definition sound of pure torment that could easily deafen any sane mortals ears." she told him in between a few more kisses.

Wyatt finally found a blue shirt and an old pair of faded jeans that were clean and smiled as if victory. Something made the back of his neck prickle slightly as he did so and he conceded to the urge to look over his shoulder to where the innocent had been sleeping earlier jus to make sure she was still there and still sleeping.

She was no longer asleep. She was gaping at him as she stared at him. He bit his lip not knowing what to do and not wanting to say something that could easily make her panic. He looked down at the towel that was his source of clothing and realized what she must be thinking.

Crap, he thought as he looked around the room. He pulled his clothes to him to the towel to make it not seem as bad as it looked.

"Uh, hi," he said as he watched her as if she were a rabid animal.

"Hi," she hiccupped out as she kept looking from his face to his towel to his face again.

He felt like meat on the market as she did. "Okay, uh. I'm Wyatt." he said feeling stupid. Right now he wanted to be dressed, not looked at like meat, and also not introducing himself partially naked.

"Leigh," she whispered and smiled a big smile. "What did we do last night, Wyatt? Cause I am like drawing a blank here and like I don't know what to think and then there you are all half naked and like wow you look really good. Oh, my god! Did I just say that? Wow, I am so going to shut up now."

Well, at least she wasn't screaming, Wyatt thought as he smiled uneasily. Of course, a person had to be half naked and hot in front of her for her not to scream her lungs out. Of course, on the other hand, this could work out. He could get her to trust him and then she wouldn't pierce anyone's ear drums again. That could be a good thing.

Of course that idea flew out the window when the demon Norxous shimmered into the room right beside her. She gulped in and looked at the demon. She rubbed her eyes and saw he really had just appeared right in front of her and then she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Wyatt looked at the new party to the room in surprise. The demon had dark black hair with eyes that were all black without any detail of white around them. The demon looked around in surprise at where he was as if he hadn't meant to even show up there and then he raised a clawed hand at the girl.

Wyatt resisted the urge to run from the room and let the demon take her and her high pitched screaming self with him. Of course, the demon seemed just as surprised to be there as the girl was to see him.

Norxous quickly belted the girl in the mouth to get her to stop screaming like a lunatic. Sadly, Wyatt was happy by the movement as he started towards the demon before he could do anymore damage to her. Now, the demons actions towards his innocent weren't necessary since she wasn't a threat to him but shutting her up could have been done peacefully! Wyatt instantly went after him as he ignored the stunned look that Leigh was giving the demon as she held her wounded mouth.

Wyatt used his telekinetic powers to throw a light at the demon who shuffled backwards again, and then he threw a nearby dresser at him causing the demon to fly backwards even more. Wyatt didn't even give the demon a chance to defend himself as he sent more objects straight at him. It had been a long night and an early morning and Wyatt wasn't in the mood to deal with some demon's crap

So he was about ready to finish killing him off when it happened. The demon was right by the window now. Before Wyatt could do anything else to the demon the demon ended up losing his balance on some old shoe lying on the messy floor and falling right out of his two story up bedroom window. Wyatt gaped in surprise as he saw it happen.

It wasn't everyday that he got off that easily.

He quickly ran over to the window to see where the demon was. He saw no splattered demon on the ground in his backyard. His backyard looked completely normal and there was no demon paragon of evil anywhere in it. Damn, he must have shimmered out before he could hit the ground. Wyatt guessed he wasn't that easy to kill as he walked back into the room and saw Leigh.

She looked like she was in a state of shock as she looked from him to the window. He didn't give her a chance to say anything. Instead, Wyatt kneeled beside her and looked into her ocean blue eyes. Her mouth was bleeding from a deep cut the demon had given her with one of his clawed nails. Wyatt went to touch her lip but then decided to say what he was going to do so she didn't have another panic attack.

"Look, I am going to look at your lip and help you okay?"

She looked at him as if he were insane and then looked back at the window where the demon had been moments before.

Wyatt stopped caring and instantly went and touched her lip now that she knew what he was doing. She flinched at his touch and he looked at her face again as he bit his own lip. He had to admit when she wasn't screaming at the top of her lungs she was pretty.

He instantly started to heal her. The all familiar golden light passed from his hand to her wound and it healed it as he let his hand rest over her mouth. She gulped as she felt the power radiate through her from his strong hands. When he was done she quickly backed away from him and looked at herself in the mirror.

She saw her wound was gone as she did so and looked back at him scared. She looked again to the mirror to make sure she wasn't seeing things and then she stepped away from him and towards his bedroom door.

"You're like an alien right?" she asked.

"What?" he asked in surprise.

"Like Roswell. You healed me like that alien dude Max. You're like not human and you have kidnapped me and all these other evil aliens are after you... Now they know who I am and they'll go after me and you did this. "she cried out as she watched him.

"No.. Now, What's Roswell?" he asked in confusion as he ran his hand through his wet, unruly dirty blond hair.

"Hello, classic TV. show. Sci-Fi network. "she told him as she ran into the bed on her whole route of avoiding him. "Oh my god! Did like you impregnate me last night? With your alien baby? Oh my god. I have to go!"

Leigh tried to run out of the messy alien's bedroom but Wyatt caught her arm in a derailing process to get her to understand he wasn't an alien, "No, that is not it. Please!"

There was a small moment that she looked like she may have believed him. Then, she looked down at his towel and back up at him. He saw her resolve pass over her face as she tried to get out of his grip.

"Help! Help!" she started screaming as he tried to keep a hold of her. Before he knew it she had done the last thing he would have expected. She grabbed the towel wrapping around his waist right from his body and as he grab for it to cover himself she ran out of the room as quickly as possible.

"Wait" he called after her but she didn't as she ran down the stairs still screaming at the top of her lungs.

"You know this all sounds so familiar." Chris told Victoria as he rubbed his chin slightly looking like a deranged Sherlock Holmes.

"Yeah, and she was here in the Manor and then they made her our innocent so we would have to protect her." Victoria concluded her story.

Victoria smiled as she sat beside Chris now fully awake, but feeling completely lazy. Chris mirrored her and sat beside her as he laughed at her nightmare.

"Wow, I think I had the same dream." he told her as he watched the main staircase to the house as they heard a shriek from upstairs that instantly disappeared. They both looked at each other in the silence as if hoping they had only merely dreamt it up.

A scream bellowed through air again from the upstairs. Victoria groaned and leaned against Chris and said. "Damn. I was hoping that it was only a dream."

"Sorry." Wyatt yelled out to anyone still in the house having to hear the girl screaming yet again from the upstairs hallway.

The murderous pitfalls of a girl barreling feet vibrated through the hallways as the girl ran down the stairs and pointed at them where they sat on the couches mattress. She looked like she was completely insane and Victoria didn't disbelieve that that may be the truth for the girl during every moment of the day.

"You're.. You're all aliens. You guys are evil devilish cult-like alien pod people and I don't have to stay for this." their innocent told them all as she folded her arms over her chest. "I will not have any aliens babies and I will report you to the F.B.I. or something."

Wyatt trailed downstairs after her as Victoria smiled at the girl. Aliens? Now that was a new one. She'd have to thank the Elders one day for giving them this very special innocent.

"Nice going, Wyatt." Chris wisecracked to his slightly disgruntled looking older brother. "She thinks we're aliens."

"Yeah, I know." Wyatt replied completely out of breath.

"How did she get that idea?" Chris asked him. "Wyatt, what did you do?"

"Me?" Wyatt asked annoyed. "I didn't do anything. A demon shimmered in. I got rid of him and I healed her. Now, she thinks we're aliens."

"Yeah, I still don't get the link." Victoria said, incredulously.

"She watches too much TV." Wyatt replied. "Roswell."

"Oh," Victoria mumbled as she connected it all together. And then she started laughing, "Oh."

"Yeah, I know. After the morning I just had, I should get the lifetime achievement award." Wyatt retorted as he stopped a few feet from the paranoid girl with his hands in the air as if to show he carried no weapons.

"Yeah, that or some clothes." Victoria said with a raw smile as she looked down at Wyatt's towel and back to his eyes with her eyebrow lifted.


	23. Wrong Side Of The Bed

Piper had initially been awake for quite sometime. She hadn't been able to get up as quickly like she used to do. Of course, she had a baby coming any day now and that weighed a lot on her back as well as her speed. She was in such a lazy mood that day and she didn't think she would ever get out of it.

She felt funny somehow too. She didn't really feel like herself and yet she felt so free out of no where. She felt like she had finally made the right decision in her life to just not care about her magical duties for one day or hell forever more.

It was great to be free. She stretched out her arms and yawned heavily as she rolled onto her side as she hogged the whole bed to herself. Leo had left earlier because of some big Elder problem that was going on up there. She hadn't really cared about the specifics at the time so she had just tried to stay asleep.

Then, of course, as if the world was against her, at the exact moment she had finally been close to falling asleep she had heard the shrieks. Against her whole magic free kick she had considered making her own spell to use so that she could steal the innocents voice box so there'd be no more noise pollution. Then, the house would be quiet like usual and she could get her beauty rest.

Of course, she would never hear the end of it from Leo so she had decided against it.

"Will it never end?" she mumbled.

Piper really wasn't in the mood for friction that morning. So, she had jumped out of bed haphazardly throwing on her blue slippers that matched her dark blue pajamas set and made her way out of her silent room. Phoebe's door was still shut and she had a feeling that right now Phoebe was sleeping or else keeping a pillow over her ears so she could try to sleep through the inconstant shrieking.

She almost wanted to blow up her door just to get her out in the hallway and awake with the rest of them but a wave of indifference and her whole non-magic kick was in her head to deeply. So, instead Piper made her way through the hall to the wooden staircase.

"Figures," she mumbled again under her breath at her sisters behavior.

Piper came barreling down the stairs in her baggy pajamas and blue slippers. She rubbed her eyes tiredly as the sunlight infiltrated her weary sight and she looked down at everyone in the living room as she came to a stop beside Wyatt.

He gave his mother a half smile as she took in the scene. Chris and Victoria were both on the pull out mattress of the old white couch. They both looked sleepy and ruffled. Chris's hair was horrible. It was going everywhere and he looked almost evil with the whole bed head look. While, Victoria had a lazy look of contempt directed in the direction of their innocent.

Who, at the moment, looked like she was going to scream yet again. Her big blue eyes were the size of quarters and she looked like she was hyperventilating as she stood amongst the small crowd. Piper couldn't be sure but she had thought she heard some mention of an alien baby of some sort as she had came down the stairs. That she didn't even want to think about so she chalked it up to still being half asleep.

Then, there was Wyatt beside her. He was just standing there. He looked a bit embarrassed and she could tell why. He wasn't really handling the innocent well and he sure wasn't ready to be downstairs with everyone. He was still wrapped in a towel and that was it as if he had just come running out of the shower to stop the innocent.

No wonder the innocent was spazzing out. Piper would have been the same way if she had woken up to a strange house filled with strangers. Not to mention the fact that the person who would have been in the room with her as she'd awoke was a half naked boy.

"Uh, Wyatt. What are you doing?" Piper asked with a uneasy smile as she waved her hand at his obliviously half naked self.

He looked down at himself and blushed. "Uh, trying to catch the innocent before she ran out of the house."

"Yeah, well. I am pretty sure you could do that better fully clothed." Piper told him.

"Wyatt just wants to get laid." Victoria said as she laughed. "Guess he came on a bit strong though. I mean look at the poor girl. She's hyperventilating."

"Wyatt, upstairs now." Piper ordered her son.

"But mom.." Wyatt cried out in surprise. He was very annoyed by Victoria's remark and Piper was not about to play referee to them this early in the morning. So, the best thing she could do was send him upstairs for a few minutes to cool off and also to get some clothes on.

"Up. Up Up. Go put some clothes on." Piper ordered.

Wyatt looked at her for a brief moment and then gave Victoria a severe look. Then, he grabbed his towel to him tighter before he bounded up the stairs leaving the room down one supposed 'alien' according to their innocent. Piper didn't even want to know where the girl had even gotten the whole 'alien' assumption from.

"Are you like their leader?" the girl asked her as Wyatt faded away into the upstairs world.

"No, I'm like their mother." Piper told her in a dark voice as she rolled her eyes.

She could see the girl was confused. Heck, she could even believe that the girl wasn't there mentally either. She just hoped that Leo could figure out why they needed to protect her. Or even better why they didn't need to protect her anymore and then piper would be perfectly happy with the whole situation.

"Creepy." the girl said. "I think I need to go home now. I have a lot of stuff I need to do. You know, people to see things to do." she told them as she started backwards towards the front door.

"Where do you think you are going?" Chris asked suspiciously as he jumped up from the bed and was beside the girl in a matter of seconds.

"Stay away from me. I don't know what you are for sure but like I am so not letting you hold me hostage in this dusty, old, smelly house." the girl insisted as she dropped back a few more steps towards the door.

"Hey!" Piper cried out angrily making the innocent shrink in terror.

She could deal with having to wake up because of this girl not knowing when to shut up. But no one ever ever ever insulted her home. Never. It was her home and it had been since the day she was born and it had been past down over the ages as well as fixed up over the ages and no innocent was going to say anything insulting about it. Not if she could help it.

"I mean it I will scream." the innocent threatened in a whisper.

"Like we haven't heard that before." Chris said sarcastically. "Mom, why don't you just freeze her? That way we don't have to deal with her while we try to save her life."

"Freeze her?" Piper asked, incredulously.

Piper thought about it for a moment. It sounded nice, but she wasn't willing to go down that path anymore. If anything she wanted to not use magic ever again. Yeah, that sounded really nice. Then, she wouldn't have to deal with any magical consequences to any of her actions or whatnot. Heck, maybe she would get away from being on all the evil doers radar for once.

She shook her head and started into the kitchen. Chris followed his mother into the kitchen. He didn't even bother to notice the fact that he was leaving the innocent alone. His mother was acting too weird to let it go. Which, her acting this weird, wasn't normal not even with her usual hormonal pregnancy mood swings.

It was like she didn't care about anything. It was like she was just against using her magic to save everyone the trouble of dealing with the innocent just because she didn't feel like using magic. It was like she was against using magic.

"So you leave me with her?" Victoria asked under her breath giving the girl a look. She was not in the mood this early in the morning and without any source of caffeine to deal with this insane girl. This was just not the best way for her to start her day by making her baby-sit a noisy girl.

Of course, she had noticed that Piper was acting a little off so she wanted Chris to figure that out as soon as possible. Hopefully, it would link to the girl and they would be able to get rid of her quickly . Being Victoria's luck she doubted it.

"Don't hurt me." the girl said as she saw Victoria's annoyed look.

"Whatever." Victoria grumbled and then sulked as she went under her covers.

"Mom, what is wrong with you?" Chris asked as he came up beside her in the kitchen.

Piper turned away from making her coffee and then started to ransack the cupboard. She then found one of the things she was looking for and grinned as she let it plop down on the counter. The package created a small cloud of whatever mix it was and she ignored it as she went on to find other things in the kitchen.

Piper grabbed the pancake mix she had let drop on the counter and then she grabbed bread. "What do you think pancakes or French toast?"

"Huh? At a time like this?" he cried as she balanced both choices in her hands and waited for an answer.

"Well, we should make our guest feel at home. You know let her be happy instead of hysterical. I mean really if I were her and had woken up in a room with a half naked boy.." Piper giggled as her thought ran off with her and then she set the bread back down on the counter where it had been before. "Pancakes with blueberries would be the best right now."

"Mom?" Chris asked as his brow furrowed in fear. He didn't know what was wrong but she definitely was not being herself. She was perky. Too perky and she wasn't referring to the innocent as an innocent but instead as a guest. That and the fact that she wasn't really doing any magic was starting to creep him out just a bit.

"What? We don't have any strawberries left. Hey, I can still make them in little stars and Christmas tree shapes like you like, little man." Piper replied giving his cheek a quick squeeze as she went on her way towards the stove now to find her cooking tools.

"What the hell?" Chris cried dramatically as he raised his hands in the air.

"Chris!" she cried "No swearing! Or I will have to wash your mouth out with soap."

Chris stood gaping at his mother. Piper started humming a song as she set the stove up to make her blueberry pancakes for everyone. Chris was just too freaked out to be able to do anything. His mother had become Mary Poppins or Mary Sunshine. It was just so creepy. For a minute there he almost wondered if he had accidentally woke up in an alternate universe or something because what he was witnessing at that very moment was so not like the mother he knew it was scary.

Wyatt came into the kitchen then. Now, he was fully clothed in black sweat pants and a white t-shirt. He had a small look of confusion as well as he came into them from the living room. He wrenched his finger back in that direction as he said, "Mom, you just left the innocent with Victoria. What are you thinking?"

"Our guest needed some time to relax. Since her and Victoria are both girls I thought they could bond." Piper told him sweetly.

Wyatt gave Chris a side look and then said, "Mom, are you crazy. Victoria hates Leigh."

"Oh, so that's her name. It suits her." Piper said with a brilliant smile as she went on doing what she was already doing while her sons looked at her like she had gone crazy the whole time.

"Alright," Wyatt drawled as he gave Chris a look.

"Mom, has gone off the deep end as we know it." Chris told him as he shrugged his shoulders.

"What? How?" Wyatt asked as Piper came over to them and he shrank away.

"Oh, you guys are talking civilly again. Oh, group hug." she told them and before they could do anything they were enfolded in a hug.

"It's some form of a mutiny. "Wyatt whispered in the tight squeeze his mother had on him as well as his brother as they both squirmed in her hold.

"No, its some evil force that's possessed her." Chris informed him as Piper gave up and giggled at their ranting.

"Oh guys, come on. Can't I just be happy?"

Wyatt and Chris both gave each other a look. Wyatt's was more like 'well, yeah she can, but not this happy. She's creepy' and Chris's look said 'creepy on the side of possessed. Or don' you believe me?'. Wyatt looked over at his mother who was now dancing with a mop and singing loudly in a low off key alto voice. His eyebrows immediately raised as he gaped at her.

"She's possessed!" Wyatt finally agreed.


	24. Sweet Dreams Are Made Of These

Alright I happened to reread some of this story and I realized I didn't really get to everything I wanted to in a pattern. So I am going to try and connect the dots to a few of the plots that I just left up in the air as well as refresh everyone's minds since I haven't wrote in this for awhile. Sorry, if you are confused. I am slightly annoyed with myself for a few things I forgot to do in this in the beginning chapters. However, I do still like the newer chapters well since I started to get into the story and I guess you can all tell that.

Oh, and also, the song SWEET DREAMS by Marilyn Manson is totally perfect for any chapter with Victoria in it. Especially, when you realize she is a vamp.

As always I hope you enjoy. Please read and review.

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Victoria yawned as she laid sprawled across the dark black covers. Her body melted into the comfortable couch bed as she did and sighed in pleasure. For once, she felt like she had almost slept like a baby. Excluding her creepy dreams of Chris dying and cheating on her with another girl that is.

Chris and Wyatt had both went into the kitchen a few minutes ago to figure out what was up with Piper, who she liked to call Mama Halliwell. In their whole interrogation process to Piper's newfound weird activities, they had left her here in the old-fashioned stuck in the 1940s living room.

Also, in their process of figuring out what exactly was wrong with Piper, Victoria was stuck with an innocent that she didn't really like that well or even feel like dealing with at the moment.

She had a few too many concerns at the moment about everything that was strange;y going on to her as well as around her to care about the innocent. Who, by her own presumptions, watched too much TV.

Victoria blinked as she looked out of one of the corners of her covers to see the cold gray sunlight shining through the window and frowned knowing instantly that something was wrong. She threw off the black blanket and looked around the room. All the furniture, the pictures, and even the innocent were all in black and white.

Her vision had been reduced to black and white for some reason. The sunlight on her hand was gray and smoky looking. She rubbed her eyes instantly as her mind woke up along with her body.

She should have color sight. This wasn't right. She had woken up with color sight and now it was gone. Plus, the last time she had checked she wasn't in Pleasantville and she sure as hell wasn't stuck in some black-and-white TV. set so there was no reason she shouldn't be seeing in color.

The horrible events from the day before came back into her memory in a hurry as she gasped out.

She had been fine yesterday. She had met up with Chris for once to have fun at P3 and then she had fainted. It was then that the world had went off to hell.

She had woken up and had been so weak, so very weak, and dizzy. It had felt like her body was dying from strangulation where she wasn't getting enough oxygen to hr brain or something, and it had felt like her organs were fighting hard to stop death from happening.

She had known when Chris had been holding her in the backroom at P3 that she had almost died again.

No one else really knew that though. They didn't know about what she was now. They just thought she had been sick for a second and now she was all better. She couldn't tell them what she had done, and they wouldn't understand it if she told them.

Victoria got up off the comfortable couch bed and jumped over to the black framed window where the gray sunlight was coming through. She had to look outside. Maybe, then there would be color there and she wouldn't feel like she was going crazy. Maybe, then everything would be fine. Maybe if she moved around a little bit she would feel better.

As much as she tried to tell herself that everything would be okay she knew it didn't matter in the end. Something was wrong with her and it was demonically wrong.

When Chris had went to save his family at P3 from whatever evil had been torturing them at the moment she had given in to the demonic possession.

It had been like.. Well, like a spell had been placed on her. She had been there in her body doing everything, feeling everything, and yet she had seen it all happen as if she weren't a part of her own body.

She had killed a demon.

Sure, it wasn't bad really since he was a demon, but the way she had done it was. Not only had she sucked his life out of him.... She was like a psychic vampire now or something... But the whole time she had known and seen everything about him. She had seen his past, his present, and even the future of his own child.

She didn't have that specific power. She shouldn't have that specific power. That's what scared her.

Even knowing he was to be a father soon she had still killed him. She had scared the hell out of him for it. Something she knew that was definitely power hungry egomaniac on the verge of evil for scaring him in that way, and then she had sucked out his life energy.

For the hell of it, that was the biggest problem here. She had done it for the hell of it.

Then, she had started to see more things. She had seen all the evil demons spirit things that had been vanquished before in the club and she had known the whole time that if she had wanted to she could have resurrected them or even interfered with them.

Which was a power only Death had.

Or did he?

She had killed a man. She hadn't even cared. She had killed him just for the fun of it and just to survive. She had killed him knowing he could have changed his ways and been a father to his baby. She hadn't given him that chance. Instead, she had just taken his life.

Victoria watched a few little kids running down the hill that were dressed as well as shadowed in black in white. It was like they were moving in slow motion. She felt like she was gong crazy as she watched them happily play small pranks on one another as they did.

Her sight had changed to black and white tunnel vision. Her teeth.. They now had a set of pearly white vampirific fangs to go with them. Her mind. It was corrupted somehow. She could feel everything in it changing sides. It felt like her morals were going out the window as well as her sanity.

It was then that she felt the sick dizziness coming over her again as she watched the children play. The hunger from earlier came into play as she watched them running around playing some stupid childhood game.

She licked her lips as she watched them. They were so innocent. They all were so trusting. Easy prey.

Then, she realized why she was hungry and she stumbled away from the window. She had wanted to take one of the children's lives. She had wanted their life energy for herself. Their life energy was so bright and vibrant. It wasn't held down at all like most adults energy was. They were completely free. A child's energy would be better for her then a demons.

It would last longer too.

Victoria shook her head as she fell onto the hardwood ground. Her dizzied stumbling had caused her to fly back into a small cherry wood end table but she hadn't had enough time to just hold onto it. Instead, she fell onto the floor taking the white table cloth and Victorian white bead fringed lamp with her.

The loud crash that came from her fall rocketed through her mind shaking it like a large earthquake would shake the house as she pulled her hands over her head. It was so loud. She could feel it. She could feel everything in the house now as it crashed into her.

She felt Piper's unwillingness to use magic and she knew that she should remember that because that was strange, but it was instantly covered by a harder layer of paranoia. It was coming from Wyatt who was racing into the room. Before she knew what she was doing she had crawled to the corner of the room and put her red shield up against him. Inside her frazzled mind, she felt that holding a shield against him or anyone else would stop the feelings as well as the world from getting into her mind and hurting her more.

Wyatt's paranoia flowed through her body like a hard knife blade stabbing into her scalp. Last night when she had tried to get away from him touching her in order to blink to the Manor she had felt it too. It had been so intense when he had touched her that it had left her unable to do anything for a moment. The world had gone black with how hard that feeling had struck her.

Now, he wasn't even touching her and she could feel it as brightly as the gray sun on her face. Now it was intense. She had felt it and she had felt some other form of feelings towards her that she couldn't quite place. It wasn't love, it wasn't quite lust, it wasn't hatred, but it was a mesh of everything. It was moving closer to her as she cried out and shielded herself.

She knew he couldn't break through her shield but then common sense wasn't playing on her side at the moment.

Everyone was here now.

The innocent had never left. She had just stayed back. She was afraid. She was scared of what was happening to her. She thought that Victoria was just like her since she hadn't seen her do magic but now she was going back on that fact. Now she was scared as well as worried. She was frozen in place.

Piper had followed Chris in from the kitchen and Phoebe had finally came into the picture. She was still in her white pajamas and she was still tired. Her mind was aware of everything, but her body was drained. Her empathic abilities were sparking and she fell back as she was hitting waves of everything that Victoria was feeling or being made feel from the people around her.

Chris was there. She could see him. In black and white he was there and his eyes were shining in worry. Something she couldn't quite remember was playing on his worry.

Something he had been told. She couldn't quite get what it was that he had been told, but she knew he was scared for her. He had his hand held out to her but he didn't touch the red shield shimmering in between them. He knew he would be thrown back if he did.

Her dreams overtook her as she gasped out in surprise.

She saw the girl he loved more then her. He had cheated on her with that girl. With Bianca. He had cheated on her. She couldn't trust him she couldn't trust anyone.

Nothing made sense to her anymore. All she knew at the moment were feelings. She couldn't think because everyone was so emotionally charged. Nothing she though made sense. Nothing linked up.

Victoria hissed at him. Her fangs didn't show as she did, but she felt them as they woke up along with the hunger in her.

He was so willing to help her. He could help her. He could give her some of his energy. He would be fine. He was twice blessed. He could take it.

He'd already died once before she was sure the Charmed Ones could bring him back to life again.

"Victoria," Chris whispered.

With those words her senses came back to her for a small moment.

She was about ready to kill him just to get her fix. Victoria shook as she slid farther back from her circular shield and watched him as he tried to get through to her.

"What is it? Victoria, what happened?" he asked.

"I'll check the house to see if anything is here that could have attacker her." Wyatt told him and orbed.

Victoria shook her head. She knew he would find nothing there .It was only her. She was the monster here.

She stared at Chris's eyes. They looked so soft right now. A dark gray. She could only guess that they looked blue. He was scared. Everyone here was so scared. All she could feel was his feeling. They overwhelmed her.

"Wow, guys, something's wrong." Phoebe told them as she grabbed a hold of the doorway to keep on her feet.

Victoria looked quickly at Phoebe. She had forgotten she had existed as well as everyone else in the room.

She had focused on Chris. He had been so close to her that he had taken up her world that could be the problem but she needed to know what was hiding beneath the surface.

Phoebe knew something too. She could tell . It was Phoebe who had started the fear in Chris. Victoria's violet-blue eyes slitted as she focused on Phoebe.

She knew now that the only person that could help her was Phoebe. She knew she wouldn't do it willingly so Victoria had a feeling that with her new found powers she could do something about that.

In second, Victoria had made it and was inside Phoebe's mind before Phoebe even knew what was happening. Before, Victoria could realize even how she had done it.

Outside Phoebe had looked fine to the world around her. She looked as if nothing had happened, but inside Victoria could feel Phoebe realizing something was inside of her mind that shouldn't be. She knew time was running out.

Victoria found herself in the middle of some barren place. There was just a long patch of ground that flowed around her. It was never-ending. It had patches of sunflowers on it as well as a few lilies. In the patch that Victoria stood she saw the flowers shrivel into themselves afraid of her.

Instantly, Phoebe was there beside her too.

"What? What are you doing here?" Phoebe cried as she came strolling up to her.

Victoria didn't waste her time explaining. She walked straight up to Phoebe instead and touched the center of her forehead where her third eye was. "There's something you that you aren't telling me. Something important."

"What? Victoria, how did you get in my...?"

"Shush... shush... "Victoria said as she felt the pull of the life energy as it taunted her.

She didn't want to hurt Phoebe. She didn't know if she could stop herself from hurting her by just going into her mind. She however knew she couldn't stay long since the more her powers were used the faster the disease was killing her body off. She was about ready for a snack.

"How did we get here?" Phoebe asked Victoria but her question also was heard by her family in the sitting room.

Piper turned to look at her sister in questioning confusion. Phoebe's dark brown eyes were open but blank. A filmy white layer had filtered over her dark brown eyes as she stared off into space. Her sister's body was rigid and she no longer was holding onto the doorway but was still on her feet.

"Phoebe, who are you talking to?" Piper asked her.

Phoebe didn't answer she just stared forward as if she were listening to something or somebody else. Piper poked her sister and waited for a response that she didn't get. She frowned as her forehead crinkled and she tried again with no result. "Uh, Chris, we have a problem."

Victoria felt the information pull into her as she felt Phoebe's premonitions filter into her own shaking body. "I just need answers, Phoebe. Nothing personal."

"What are you doing to me?"

"It's better if you don't figure it out. For the both of us." Victoria answered as her body was struck.

"Victoria?" Chris cried.

He had been watching her. She had dazed a little .Her violet-blue eyes had been only slits. Then, she had started to shudder. He reached out for her as he completely forgot about the strong force field between them, but instead of getting to her he hit the shield. The force field swallowed his hand in itself for a moment and then it threw him back to smack him jarringly against the wall. It did something else new. As it threw him away from Victoria he felt weak for a moment as if it had stolen some of his strength while it had discarded him.

Chris hit the wall hard, he fell to the ground instantly unconscious, and a plant fell over his head as his body laid sprawled across the floor.

"No, no, no. Victoria, stop this nonsense right now!" piper cried out as she ran from her unresponsive sister over to her unconscious son.

"Victoria, we can help you." Phoebe said aloud to the silence enfolding the room as Piper checked to make sure her son was still breathing.

Leigh looked around at the craziness in the room and swallowed hard .She didn't know what to do. Both doors were blocked. One by a weird creepy tranced out Phoebe and the other by Piper and her hurt son.

She no longer trusted Victoria to help her. She was just like them.

Victoria, after feeling the small aftershock from Chris's touching her shield, pulled out of Phoebe's mind as the visions came into her body as she collapsed with back hitting the floor. Her red shield shivered and disappeared as she did. Victoria gasped as she felt the visions take over her mind. There were two and they hit her hard one after the other as she tried to keep them in order and tried to keep everything in them in mind.

_She saw herself trying to push through everyone to see what had happened, but Wyatt was trying to hold her back. Piper was lying on the ground in the attic in front of everyone and she was crying as she tried to give birth. She was in so much pain... Then, she was dead._

_Piper was just lying there not breathing with her eyes fixated on the ceiling. Victoria finally pushed through everyone as they stood in shock of Piper's death and she threw Wyatt back at the wall with her telekinesis as she moved to Piper. Then, saw Phoebe go to stop her._

_Then, saw herself throw Phoebe out of her way jarringly._

_The second premonition over took her before she catch her breath. Instantly she was sent to place she had been before. _

_Victoria saw the demon she had killed in front of her. He was walking down the alley behind the club and then he stopped immediately. He was standing there for a moment as he saw someone. The next moment he was dead on the stone alley wall. Then, she saw a drunken version of herself walking dizzily away. There was a black aura over her body that followed her everywhere. It was around her one moment and then it went into her another like a game of illusions_

Victoria opened her violet-blue eyes to the chilled room around her. Wyatt orbed back in to see what had happened and saw his brother down for the count. He looked Victoria as she slowly tried to get to her feet in order to make her way to Chris to make sure he was fine. Her insanity had fallen away form her for the moment as the world came back to her.

The dizziness had fallen away a little bit for now. Which made her wonder how until she saw Chris lying unconsciously on the hardwood floor in front of her. Phoebe was blinking a million times out of her trance faded away that Victoria had put her in while she had find out the information she needed. Phoebe started to focus on Victoria as she started to Chris's side.

She hadn't meant for him to get hurt. She hadn't expected him to try to get through her shield to get to her. Something must have happened to her while she had been going through the premonitions that scared him enough to try.

It was all her fault. He was hurt and she couldn't even heal him. All she could do was kill him .

Before she could do or say anything. Before she could even go to him, Wyatt used his telekinesis on her and sent her flying up back against the wall she had been curled against moments before.

Victoria cried out as fresh pain ran through her. Before she could do anything Wyatt was using his telekinesis to choke her as he stalked up to her.

She realized then that he knew her little secret. A flash of her in the alley letting the demons body fall to the floor enfolded her as her nails bit into his hands as they replaced his power over her neck. He knew, he really didn't trust her now, and he was going to use the truth against her.

"What did you do to my brother?"


	25. Blame The Moon

Sorry for the update. Rough time.

R.I.P. J. L. Jewel.

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Victoria felt the hard plastered white wall beneath her back. The skin around her throat was slowly burning where Wyatt's fingers were piercing it. She felt the coldness of the wall filter into her body as he held her tighter between himself and the wall in his anger. She felt the world around her vibrating like a madhouse as she tried to stifle it all away, but she could find no solace in fainting now. Instead, she was still trapped in the living room. Phoebe's confusion, Piper's temper mixed with worry, and Wyatt's fierce distrust towards her grew overwhelming as Victoria.

Their feelings flooded her like a tidal wave. Her body jerked beneath Wyatt's hardened touch. She felt the conscious wall break apart as she went under.

Wyatt's touch... it linked them together whether he knew it or not. Unable to control it, she felt her mind get pulled under the riptide and enter his. She fell into a sea of red.

She saw herself through his eyes. Beautiful but dangerous. She felt the lust thickly decaying on the edges of his new distrust of her as he held her close to him. She could feel his body reacting to hers as she moved into his mind closer. She felt the madness he had been going over for the past month wrestle into her system like a plague.

He felt things for her he didn't want to. He had felt them since the first moment he had seen her unconscious before him. When she had first came into their lives it had started his obsession with her all over again. He had known now that he had no chance with her since she was with Chris.

He had tried everything to get her taste to go away. He had tried to stop feeling by other girls, but that had never worked because even then he couldn't stop seeing her face. So, he had tried to distract himself with demons that tried to kill his family off daily but that hadn't worked either since he could take them all so easily without a challenge. It was the challenge that he was looking for. He wanted to have someone or something that challenged him enough to give an inkling of his time to.

She had been the only one who had provided him with that challenege. He didn't want it to be only her that did that for him. He didn't want her when she was with his brother. He didn't want Chris to get hurt. Too bad since they all were going to get hurt in the end whether they liked it or not.

He had never stopped feeling towards her though.

The longer she was nearby the harder it got for him to resist his urges. She could feel this unseen bond between them pulling her ever closer into his chaotic mind as she let it. At least here inside his mind she could be free of people's emotions pulling her in every which way. Here she could also do a little bit of spying on him and that was exactly what she was looking forward to doing.

He had been trying to let her go. He had been trying to disguise how he felt. He hadn't wanted his family to know that he felt anything for her. He didn't want them to know but the aunts as well as his mother had saw it. Chris had seen it too, but Chris was trying to play dumb to the situation. So was Wyatt. He didn't know how to explain to his own little brother why he felt the things he did towards her especially when she wasn't reciprocating his feelings in the least.

She felt all these things from him. She saw them as well in tiny patches of light and shadow. Inside his mind she had a shrine dedicated to her. Here she saw the way he saw her and weirdly enough she liked it.

She saw herself through his eyes. He saw her as beautiful. Strange and beautiful. She was like his equal power wise. She was the one he always looked for in the crowd whenever he was out anywhere. Even if she wasn't supposed to be there or she wasn't expected he still searched for her as if he would find her among the strangers he was around daily. To him she was the illusive treasure that he never got.

She saw herself there hidden inside of him. Not the way she saw herself every day, but in his ways he saw herself. She saw small patches of her from glimpses out of the side of his eye, she saw him there when she didn't even think he was there, and she saw him there when she was alone. She had expected him to have this image of evil of her, but he didn't. He saw her as beautiful.

It was the strangest thing for her to even know. Above all, the very picture of her at her most beautiful to him was when she had woken up that very morning. She saw herself through his eyes with her disheveled reddish-brown hair framing her sleeping face and pale skin gleaming in the pale sunlight.

He had watched her while she had slept. He had been there while Chris had slept beside her and she had been asleep next to him. He had stayed quiet and in the corner so that he wouldn't be caught. It wasn't a game to him to sneak these rare images of her it was more like the only time he could be at peace. It was times like this where he was the closest to her without her fighting him.

It was the closest he was to her seeing her look peaceful.

Victoria tried to breathe as she wrestled with the fact that Wyatt didn't truly hate her.

Instead, he hated himself for feeling the way he did about her. He was betraying his own brother. She could feel that. He felt like he was betraying Chris by being in love with her but he had never been able to quit.

She saw something else hidden beneath the images of her forming a collage inside of his mind. She feel into a sea of bright green light and woke to a place she remembered too well.

A place of murder.

There she saw what he had been hiding from everyone.

She saw herself. She was there in the alley with her slim body braced over this scared little mans. His dark eyes were darting everywhere for some form of comfort or even a savior but none came. Instead, he was there with her and she was hungry.

Victoria watched herself from behind the dumpster. Right beside her was Wyatt. He was holding onto the dumpster for support. He was in shock of what he was seeing. He didn't recognize her. He didn't understand why she was doing what she was doing. As she watched Wyatt she saw the guilt pass over his paling face.

It was right then that he had decided to just sit there and watch it happen. He hadn't known what else there was that he could do. He hadn't wanted to hurt her at all. He'd wanted to know what she was up to and he was willing to let this one person demon thing be tortured just to finally know what she had been keeping a secret from everyone.

It was right then and there that she had destroyed his code of ethics, of morals, and whatever else Wyatt based his every move he made on.

She watched with a sick feeling broiling in his stoamch of what she had hoped was only a nightmare. It wasn't now that she saw it through his eyes. She saw the demon she had been playing with flinch as he tried to break away from her strong hold, but she didn't budge an inch.

"Wait," he whispered it was the loudest word spoken in that alley that night.

She looked over at Wyatt's drawn face as he watched with insinutatin eyes. It was here that she had become a monster to him. Victoira bit her lip and looked back at herself and saw herself pull away from the demon.

"For what?" she'd asked.

"What's his name?"

"Is that all you want?"

"I want everything. Doesn't mean I will be getting it anytime soon."

She'd nodded with a distant smile that had made Wyatt tremble. "She will name him after you."

The demon had nodded. She'd given him a moment to comprehend her words. And then she had took the last of his life energy from him as he collapsed into her arms. Victoria watched herself in the cold moonlight as she held onto the demon tightly and sucked its life away faster. Even from where she was she could still see the bright blood thirsty smile she gave as she bite harder into the last of his life energy.

After she'd had killed him all she could do was laugh. She'd laughed leaning against the wall feeling like a drunken fool. Her wrist was turned in towards her body and her back was half tilted on the wall. Her side was leaning against the wall and her back was shaking in the undercurrents of laughter as she thought about it in her moment of drunken insanity.

She laughed harder feeling empty as she looked up at the clear black sky above her with its twinkling stars

Victoria stared at Wyatt not able to see the monster she had been in front of him minutes before. He just stood there. His face was completely devoid of emotions and she had no way of knowing what exactly was going on in there. Whatever it was it was big because he looked like he had shut down.

She knew from experience that soon he would come into the club after her. Then, he hadn't acted at all like he had just seen her go stark raving mad. He had only been the usual annoying rude self that he had become towards her since the moment he had come back from Andrew's whole take over of his body.

Now, she knew what he knew. She had no idea what to do with the information though. She was a monster. She had become something she didn't even understand and here she was now stuck knowing someone else had witnessed her being a murderer. As if it weren't bad enough he was also in love with.

He knew her secret. He didn't know what to do though. He loved her still somehow even after witnessing her kill a demon. Sure, they killed demons everyday, but this was different. She had relished in it which was a behavoir bordering on the evil side of things. So, since he hadn't gone and told anyone her secret she knew what he was going to try to do now. He was going to try to save her. He thought that by saving her then he woud be able to save himself.

Boy was he wrong.

"Wyatt, please, let me go." she whispered as she came out of his mind and was blanketing now with the overwhelming need to breathe.

"You hurt my brother." he growled back.

"no, I didn't.. mean to. He just.."

"Chris tried to get to her, Wyatt. He tried to get through her shield because he thought that she was hurt because she started convulsing. Her shield threw him back not Victoria. It wasn't all entirely her fault," Piper tried to convince her oldest son as she stayed kneeled beside Chris.

"It is though. Can't you see that? It's all her fault." he replied as he pressed harder into her throat.

She coughed harder. Her sight dimming to pinpoints of black spots. "Wyatt, don't. make. Me. Hurt. you."

"Like you haven't before?" he asked her as he leaned his head towards hers and lightly spoke in her ear. "Like you haven't killed others before?"

It was then that Victoria realized that Wyatt wasn't playing this game with a full deck.

"What's.. want to know?" she tried to gasp out with a cough ridden smile as she giggled crazily at the whole situation she was now in.

Wyatt kept his mouth next to her ear and she felt the warm breath blow over her chilling skin. "I want you to confess your sins my child." he gurgled out in laughter.


	26. AUTHORS NOTE

Okay, I would just like to say I am sorry I haven't been the best at updating any of my stories. Primarily, this one.

However, I do appreciate all the reviews I have received.

This chapter ended up being a long one. I thought I could make it up to all of you to set forth a new turn of events as well as make a long chapter. I hope I haven't lost a lot of you readers, but you never know.

Again, I am sorry. I just have college, work, and then a few other things that like to jump up as of late. However, I am hoping on updating a lot more and quicker once this semester lets out. Hopefully, I can even finish this story!

Anyways, I have to thank OTHCharmeFreak for all the reviews. Margarita Maranan for staying true to the story and reviewing. Thanks, you keep my updating whenever I get the free time to update that is. Shortie 4283 for the lovely reviews. Also, ilovedrew88, thank you for the reviews also. I am happy you liked Altered Life and I hope that you enjoy this story just as much.


	27. I Will Move Heaven To Be Where You Are

Wyatt looked over at her with his grim smile fading from his lips. He felt sanity roll back over him again as he realized what he had just done. He looked down at his hand that he had just used to try to choke Victoria to death and straight back up to her in surprise. He didn't know what had really gone over him in that second, but he could have sworn that some of the insanity that he had seen Victoria have had rolled into his body for a moment there.

Before she could even speak. Before she could even utter a word in her own defense, Wyatt had orbed them both away from the Manor straight to the Golden Gate Bridge.

There they were alone. He let her go roughly as she fell back a few steps away from him on the steel beams of the bridge. The orange suns rays glittered harshly in his bright blue eyes as her reddening shadow glared out from its light. Her reddish brown hair glowed a rough golden color in the suns light as he stared right at her.

He knew she knew now that he knew her secret. He didn't know how or even what she was hiding from any of them really, but he was willing to stay at the top of the Golden Gate Bridge all day and night till he found out.

"Tell me. Now. "he ordered her as she stood there before him.

Her hand smoothed over her bruising throat as she stared at him and nodded. "You want to really be my confidant, Wyatt, at a time like this?" she asked.

The way she'd said it actually could have turned his blood cold. It was such a sore voice that griped him in coldness. He couldn't even match it with her own usual soft voice.

"Right now I am the best bet you have." he laughed sourly at the thought.

"I've seen better days?" she offered lamely as her excuse. Victoria gave him a bitter smile as she tossed her head back in the gleaming light . The sun poured over her pale skin darkly and burned into his eyes as he watched her.

"Don't play dumb with me, Victoria. I know you."

"You know me? You know me?" she asked in surprise. "Right."

"I know this isn't like you. I know there's something wrong with you. I know you need help and I am the only one right now to help you since you put my brother out of commission." he replied as he took a few steps forward to her.

If anything he wished he was in his brother's spot now. Not on the floor unconscious, but by being the person she had spent this last month with. He wished he had been in his brother' s place every time he had saw them together. The way they knew each other so well so quickly. How they had been able to know with a single glance what the other was thinking, or hell, even to have been the one spending so much time there with her.

But she hadn't chosen him. He'd had to live with that. It didn't mean he was going to let her go or let her hurt alone on her own. It only meant he hadn't won this fight yet.

Wyatt knew one thing for certain about Victoria. She loved Chris. He would bet all the money he had that she wasn't telling Chris what was wrong with her just because she didn't want him to look at her with different eyes. She didn't want to lose her perfect goddess appeal to him and she was willing to kill herself because of it.

People did stupid things for love. He knew that better than anyone else. Why else would he be on the top of the Golden Gate Bridge at a time like this with his brother's girl trying to save her?

"I'm not myself lately?" she offered again as she gave him another lame excuse as she started giggling. "So why don't you ski-dattle your way home and let me be?"

He couldn't believe that he had almost choked the life out of her moments before this. He had a feeling that if she got close enough to him again he would do it right this time because of all the lame responses she was trying to give him to get rid of him. Well, that or kiss her. Either way his family would hate him for it.

"I'm not leaving you."

"Wyatt, please. It's not safe to be here. Not with me." she pleaded in a softer voice as she stared into his eyes truthfully.

Her seriousness ran over him like a ton of bricks as she stared at him. Her violet eyes staring deeply into his. The look that was hidden in them was so sad. She didn't want him to know what she had become. She had changed though. Within a matter of days, she had changed.

She was sick now. That was all he knew. Victoria was so close mouthed when it came to saving herself. If anyone were to get the martyr award of the year it would be her right now. He loved her for that. He hated her too. He hated her for the monster she had become.

She had just killed that demon in the alley. It was murder not a vanquish to save the world from his evil. No, it had been filled with a deranged need for something that she had taken from him in the end. Wyatt had a feeling that that very thing was the demons life, or life force, or life energy or whatever you wanted to call it.

He had a feeling that was why she was looking horrible and tired now. Even after a good night of sleep, he saw the sickness was high over her again. Her blue-violet eyes looked hollow and bloodshot as she stared at him. Her strength that she had somehow gotten for a little bit of time was waning low again.

He knew she needed somebody else to suck dry now. He knew she was dying inside. He had seen it before in the alley. The intensity that the sickens washed over her until she wasn't herself and she was drinking a persons life away.

It was a curse.

"I'm not going to leave you," he responded.

However she had gotten it he wanted to know. He wanted to know what it was. He wanted to help her. He needed to help her. Want had nothing to do with this. If he saved her then him sitting back the first time round to see her kill off someone for their life energy would disappear. He would have saved her and killed the evil that was taking over her body now.

"Please, don't be my brave, strong knight in shining Armour now. It's not safe."

He had brought her to this very spot for another thing besides the truth. He had brought her here in case she went after anyone in his family. Namely, Chris right now since he would have been the easiest to kill since he was unconscious in the living room for some reason or another.

"I can't leave you here like this."

He had brought her here for many reasons. Right now all he cared about was one and that was that he only wanted to save her.

"You can't have me either." she told him in a hard voice of steel.

Wyatt had almost believed her until he saw her strength fail and deteriorate in a matter of seconds right before his eyes. Victoria started coughing. The coughs raged through her body as she tried to grab a hold of something to keep her on her feet.  
She dropped to her knees on the steel bridge. Wyatt was beside her in an instant. He saw her strength fading so fast as fear raged through him.

He pulled her into his strong arms without even thinking about it as he looked her over in panic. Her pale skin was moist with sweat as she looked up at him with dulling violet-blue eyes. Her pale lips shivered out breaths of air as she kept on coughing on the air that filled her lungs but the air wasn't enough to sustain her. She stared up at him with glowing tears in her eyes as he held her to him.

He knew he couldn't do anything to save her now. Nothing that was permanent anyways. However, he knew he could save her from dying at the moment

"Victoria?" he whispered as he held onto her. Her body shaking in his hands as he tried to warm her arms. She giggled feverishly in his arms as he pulled her into him. Her head collapsed onto his shoulder as he stared down at her pale face. He pulled his arms around her small body and held her closer to him as she breathed heavily. He just realized then that she was still in her Mr. Bubbles pajamas that his aunt has lent her.

"Wyatt." she whispered through a few laughs that turned into coughs.

"Yeah?" he asked her as he searched the bridge for something to help her. Something to help him help her, but he found nothing. He didn't know what to do. He hadn't been prepared for this. A fight maybe. Her and him fighting till one of them was hurt or seriously wounded maybe. Not her collapsing in his arms and him having to battle himself for an answer or a hope or something to save her.

"Who would have thought?" she whispered.

"Who would have thought?" he asked stunned into questioning.

"Us. Here together."

"Oh, "he answered stupidly. His bright blue eyes gazed out into the sky. It's cerulean blue color dominating the scene as a few lcouds slowly passed over head of them. The smell of salt spreading thin over his senses as he held her to him as tightly as could be.

"I'm sorry." she whispered.

He shook his unruly head of dirty blond curls. He knew what she was doing. He knew what she meant. She was starting to sound like a goner. She sounded like she knew she was going to die and she was going to give up the fight just because she could. It sounded like she was telling him her lasts.

"Oh, no you don't. You don't do death. I know you, Victoria. You don't. You fight. You fight like hell to survive and you are going to do that now. You understand me." he ordered her as he pulled her a few inches from his face and looked deep into her tiredly drooping eyes.

"I can't help it." she told him.

"Oh, the hell you can." he told her angrily.

"I'll become a monster." she replied.

He thought for a second. Yes, she would. She would. He knew that .He had witnessed it. He had seen her go crazy and suck the life out of a demon. He had seen her high as a kite off of the very feeling of it. She had been fine a few seconds later though. Sure, she had been weird around him and hadn't wanted her to touch him...

She'd cried out when he had touched her. She had cried out like he had hurt her and then earlier when he had been choking her he had seen her disappear from herself for just a moment of time. She was telling him now like he knew already that she would become a monster.

...What if.. What if she knew everything. What if she knew he saw her that night because whenever she touched someone she saw a flash or a premonition or something like Aunt Phoebe. What if she knew things inside of his mind. It would explain a lot.

That had to be it.

"You know I saw you, don't you?" he asked her as he pulled himself from his own thoughts and looked back down at her.

Her blue eyes were shut to the world. Her breathing was slowing. He knew this wasn't good. Not at all.

He knew there was only one thing he could do to. He loved her and he had to do it to keep her alive.

"Victoria. "he yelled at her. "Wake up, Victoria."

Her blue eyes flicked just a little and opened. She looked so tired. She looked so beautiful.

"Take mine." he told her.

She shook her head as he pulled her into him and up to his neck where he had seen her go for the man's life energy. She shook her head and tried to push him away. Somehow her strength was back just a little more. She pushed him enough for him to let her of in surprise and she was off and crawling way from him in seconds.

"Oh, no you don't." he replied to her actions as he moved to her and stood in her path. He kneeled down to her as he embraced her shoulders. "I'm not going to let you go. You get me?"

"Just let me die." she whispered as tears fell down her cheeks. "Don't want to live like this."

She tried to bat him off but he pulled her closer to him. "Don't you get it? Victoria.. I love you."

More tears flowed down her cheeks as she stopped batting him off of her and just stared at him. The tip of her nose was red from crying. Her blue eyes glowed so darkly in pain as she stared into his and touched his face so gently. For a moment, he almost believed she loved him back.

"Wyatt?" she whispered so softly as if in realization.

"I want you to." he told her as he pulled the collar of his shirt down more to expose his throat.

Her dark violet eyes blackened in desire as she saw is throat. He knew it was what she needed. He knew she didn't want it though. She didn't want to hurt him , but he couldn't let her go. Not if he could save her.

"I'll hurt you." she told him.

"That's okay. "he replied warming her icy cold hands in his and smiling at her. His tanned hands then went to her pale face and moved it up to his. He didn't make her kiss him though. He just stared at her. Everything about her raining over him as he did.

"I don't know if I can control it."

"I trust you."

"Why?" she asked, searching his eyes.

"Do I have to repeat what I said before?" he answered as her eyes strangely watched him.

"I'm sorry." she whispered.

Before he could answer she sprang onto him. He fell hard back onto the steel frame of the bridge. Her body covered his instinctively in the cold harsh wind that sprang up between them. He held onto her as she brought her cold mouth next to his throat. Then, the tearing began as he sucked in air.

He felt the death feeling. He felt death hovering over him as she clung to him and drank. Pain ripped through his whole body as she did this and he jerked uncontrollably in its aftermath. He felt like his soul was tearing away from his very bones it hurt so much. It was a beyond speak able pain.

All in all though, he felt her. He'd never felt this close to her before. To anyone else really.

He felt her feelings wash over him. She was happy he was trying to save her. She was happy she wasn't going to die. Something lingered though over her happiness. He knew she didn't want to be a monster . She didn't want to hurt him or anyone else.

She just wanted to be left alone.

Then, he saw the thing. He saw her standing in front of the mirror at her old home. Her body was see through and she was scared. Then, he saw the black thing hovering about her whispering sweet nothings of power into her ear.

He knew now what was haunting her.

The pain worsened as he drew closer to her. It felt like a blade was spiraling down his body biting at his skin and clawing its way inside his body. He knew if she took more he would die. He pulled at her as she drank as he tried to get her to let go of him.

"Victoria." he whispered.

He pulled at her hands again, but she was stronger now. She was definitely stronger. She was getting stronger each moment that she kept drinking. If he let her drink anymore he would die. He knew that as he laid beneath her.

"Victoria!" he cried out in pain as he tried to wrestle her off.

Her violet eyes sprang open as she flew back off of him. Wyatt instantly sat up as his hand covered his neck where her cool mouth had been seconds before. There was no wound there though. There was only the feeling of being so very tired that lurked through his blood stream. He felt his way quickly to the nearby steel beam not sure he could support himself.

He looked over at her. Her violet eyes were black now. They filled up her eyes for a moment as she stared at him. Something evil and slightly as old as time was inside of her. It looked out at him as he shivered in the cold as the wind picked up. Then, it leaked out of her eyes in the form of tears as giant dark violet tears ran down her eyes to the beam. They disappeared on the beam of the bridge and Wyatt looked back up to Victoria's eyes that were now their regular blue-violet eye color again.

She stared at him for a long moment and swallowed as he stared back at her. They maintained their distance for a long second as they stared at each other and then she crawled to him.

Wyatt watched forbiddingly as she did. He didn't move though. He only waited. Victoria sat beside him for a moment and looked into his blue eyes. They didn't speak as she used her now warm fingertips to raise Wyatt's head up to see his throat. When she saw whatever it was that she needed to see her eyes met his.

In slow motion, she leaned into him and their lips brushed smoothly. Time stood still for him as he breathed in the sweet smell of her. He felt like he had died as they kissed. A string of electricity filed through their bodies as they did. The electricity was as old as time.

It was one of the happiest moments of his life.

Then, the kiss ended and Victoria leaned back onto the palms of her hands. She smiled sadly for a second at him and then she made her way into his embrace. She pulled his arms around her as she let her head drop onto his shoulder and she closed her eyes. It was only a matter of seconds before they were breathing together.

Wyatt barely heard her whisper as he sat stunned into happiness and the beckoning of sleep.

"Thank you."


	28. The Mess We've Made

Wyatt held onto her like he was stuck in a mirage. He couldn't help it. He just kept feeling the brush of her warm, soft lips on his like a phantom torturing him as he held her closer. She stayed still in his arms as he did but he didn't notice. This was their time to be together for once and he wasn't going to let her go so quickly.

He just felt the whole moment playing over again and over again throughout him. There was hope. He did love her and something in her had decided to love him back for a moment. The kiss had proven him that. He had a chance!

"Victoria," he whispered to her sleeping form.

She moved slightly in his arms and mumbled lightly as she held onto sleep for a little longer.

"What do we do now?" he asked her.....

Chris woke up slowly from his misting unconsciousness to find himself not still lying on the cold carpeted floor in the living room that he had been thrown to fro the shock of hitting Victoria's shield.

His mother was right next to him and she was standing over him like a looming shadow in the distance as her gentle soft brown eyes gazed into his. He hadn't been here before he realized slowly. He had been moved to the couch. His father kneeled beside him with his hands reaching out over his chest as he healed him. Leo's blue eyes glittered down on his son lovingly with worry as he did.

He had been told what happened and he hadn't liked it one bit. He had noticed that Victoria had been off lately, but he had just left it up in the air as a cold or something. Now, he knew differently after what Phoebe had informed him of. Victoria wasn't letting on everything about herself or anything that was affecting her at the present moment. She was the reason his son was hurt at this very moment and now his oldest son was somewhere else in the world with her.

After the last fight that she and Wyatt had had Leo had to worry about how this one would turn up.

Especially, now that Victoria could pick into someone's mind in order to retain information. She had done it with Phoebe. She knew about the premonitions of herself as well as Piper's death. What else she knew he didn't know, but he wanted to find out.

There was still one secret left for her to find out.. One main secret that Victoria couldn't bring out. Chris's secret.

Leo looked back over at Phoebe who stood in the darkened doorway with her thin arms still folded crossed her chest. She looked worried, angry, and above all else confused. He had to admit he felt the same way too. The Elders had never said that Victoria had the power to do what she had done. The fact that she had temporarily put Phoebe as well as his son out of commission while doing it he didn't like at all.

Victoria had powers she shouldn't have. She had some new secret and she was sick all the time according to Phoebe as well as Piper. Leo knew they should have told him earlier about it and he was angry at them for it. Because of them not telling him this is what happened. Victoria had gotten out of hand whether she did it because she wanted to or else because something had possessed her didn't matter. She had done this and now he had to pick up the pieces.

"Chris, are you alright?" Leo asked his son. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, dad. Where? Where is Victoria?" Chris asked his father as he slowly sat up on the couch dozily.

"We don't really know." Leo told his son. "Wyatt took her."

"You let Wyatt take her? Are you insane? Well, can't you sense her somewhere?" Chris asked instantly only thinking about her now and what was wrong with her.

"Chris, we're worried about you now."

"What? Why? I'm fine, dad. You healed me." Chris replied and looked at his sad mother, his paranoid aunt, and his worried father as he realized what they were all thinking. "No way. This wasn't on purpose. She.. I don't know what was happening to her. I knew she had her shield up but I still tried to get through it. I wasn't thinking and I ended up hurt. She didn't try to hurt me."

"Chris," Leo tried to say softly.

"No, I did this to myself. I should have stopped myself, but I tried to get through to her and I ended up getting hurt. It's my fault not hers."

"Chris, she didn't tell you what was wrong in the first place." Leo started.

"She never got the chance." Chris tried to say in her defense as Leo shook his head.

"Son, she has powers now that she shouldn't have. She's been using them and it's affecting her more then it should. The Elders think that she may not be on our side anymore."

"No, dad you're wrong. She is on our side."

"Chris, explain to me why she has powers that don't belong to her unless she became evil in order to kill to attain them."

"You're wrong. What about her powers progressing? She's already all powerful like Wyatt so why not have her powers progressing? Ours do it all the time."

"Because the Elders know when that happens. They decide when that happens." Leo informed Chris.

Chris stubbornly shook his head and looked from his mother to his father. He tried to find someone on his inside in the room. Anyone if possible, but no one looked convinced by his argument. Then, he looked to Phoebe and decided to play her empath card before it was too late.

"Phoebe, come on tell them she's not evil. You're an empath for Christ's sake!" he cried out when she started to shake her head.

"I can't be on your side this time Chris." she told him softly as she hung her dark curly head.

"Why? Why? Huh? Is it because she's more powerful then you and you are jealous of her because you never got an active power while she has so many? Huh? Is that it?"

Phoebe glared at him in his stupid assumptions and looked around the room angrily.

"Well, come on, aunt Phoebe. You're not one to keep a secret. Tell me what she did to you that was so bad that would make you change your mind so quickly." Chris cried.

Phoebe bit her lip and glared still. Her eyes turned to Leo and Piper for askance to the situation.

"No," Chris cried out again as he went in front of his parents to block Phoebe's gaze. "I asked you a question about my girl and now you have to answer me. Give me one good reason why she's evil."

"Chris, you love her. You're too close to the situation to see it any other way." Phoebe told him.

"Just stop patronizing me, Pheebs. Alright? Just answer the question."

"Fine. Leo's right. She has powers she didn't have before. I found that out when she raped my mind for answers. Literally."

Chris gaped at her and shook his head in denial.

"That's what happened, Chris. When she started having seizures she took my premonitions into herself. She knows what I saw. She knows everything."

Chris shook his head in denial with fresh brittle tears forming in his jade green eyes.

"Come on, Chris. Haven't you noticed how weird she has been acting? Then, at the club she fainted and was fine a few seconds later and just now when she was acting like a wild animal. That isn't the same girl you fell in love with Chris. I felt that the moment I entered the room. Something in her is very wrong and I don't know if we can save her from it." Phoebe told him as she tried to come forward into the room and comfort him.

He didn't let her though. He just looked at her through angry tears. He didn't want to know this was happening. He didn't want to believe the girl he was in love with was evil, but everyone had saw what happened. If she wasn't evil then there definitely was something wrong with her and they all didn't know if they could save her.

"Chris?" Leo asked his son.

Chris shook his head, his arms crossed, and his green eyes started to tear up but not falling. "So what? What do you expect me to do to her, dad? Kill her? Say it's for the greater good? I love her!"

Leo flinched at Chris's 'greater good' comment but shook his head at his sons suggestions, "No, we'll try to save her. We don't really know for sure but we have to make sure what's going on with her. We'll save her if we can. You just have to know that sometimes we can't save everyone."

Chris glared at his father. "You're wrong about her, and I'm going to prove it."

In a matter of seconds, Chris had orbed away from them. He went straight to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was the only place that he could think of at the moment that Wyatt would take Victoria.

He was worried about what he would find. A dead body. A few dead bodies of his brother and the girl he loved.

He hoped not. He just didn't get why Wyatt of all people would take her away. He didn't get why everyone didn't trust her. He knew what Phoebe said was true but still... They all had been on the dark side at one time or another and they all had been possessed by something else at one time or another. So, why? Why would they even say that they couldn't save everyone unless Phoebe or the Elders had said something was wrong with her.

Something that was wrong with her besides the fact that death was after her.

Then, what was it? What had happened to her? Why hadn't she told him?

Why couldn't she trust him enough to have him save her?

All these things ran through his mind as he looked around at his surroundings. The sky was graying over head and a storm was coming. He wouldn't doubt it was because of his emotions. He was sure he would get yelled at later, but now he really didn't care. All he cared about now was finding Victoria and making sure she was safe.

He had to make sure that Wyatt hadn't hurt her in some way thinking that she had deliberately hurt him.

The smell of salt lashed through the air around him as he saw some shadows that didn't belong with the gate's steel beams. He moved quickly seeing them huddled together and fearing the worst.

What if she was dead? What if Wyatt had killed her? She was so much weaker lately then usual. She hadn't told him why, but she couldn't be the best in a fight if she was sick right now.

If Wyatt had murdered her....

Chris came straight up to them and stopped in his tracks. Before him was his brother and his girl. They both were sitting on the top of the Golden Gate Bridge together and alive and safe and sound.

Together...

Chris took in a gulp of fresh air as his jade eyes set the scene.

Wyatt has his head done. He was looking down at Victoria so.. Lovingly.. His dark blond curls flying in the wind as his clear blue eyes scanned Victoria's face like she was an angel and if he closed them for one moment then the world would end. His face.. Chris had never seen his brother look that way at anyone in his life. Never. He was looking that way at his girl.

Victoria was there inside his brother's arms. Wyatt was holding her close to him. Her reddish-brown curls flying in the breeze and teasing the side of her pale face as she laid with her eyes closed to the world around them. She was still in her pajamas and she was shaking a little from the cold breeze around them.

She looked so beautiful and so peaceful. It had been a long time since he had seen her be able to sleep right.. Now she was doing it in his brother's arms.

She smiled softly as he watched her lay there so comfortable in his brother's arms. Something Wyatt had said into her ear had made her smile. It wasn't right. Wyatt never made her smile. Wyatt made her angry and annoyed but he never made her smile.

Chris watched in horror as she opened her beautiful blue-violet eyes to the world. She was the only person with that color of eyes. A gods eyes, he had told her once when they had been kidding around.

She looked up at Wyatt. There was a pause in time. A rift maybe, Chris didn't know for sure as his world fell apart around him. She looked back up at Wyatt with the same expression he was giving her. It was more veiled though. It had layers.

Had she ever looked at him that way?

She looked at Wyatt and a tear fell down her cheek as she did.

"What do you know about me now that you didn't know before?" Wyatt asked her.

Victoria looked at Wyatt with a soft smile and shook her head slightly. She didn't know how he knew that she could see things by just being close to him, but he did. She was surprised he could tell this so easily. She spoke slowly as she went through everything she had seen when she had been kissing him, "I know you used to stalk me when I was with Chris. You watched me while I slept last night. You wished you were the one beside me. You never stopped loving me even if I tried to stop you."

"You got all that from a kiss?" he asked her as his brilliant blue eyes searched hers and she shivered from the cold.

She looked to the dark black ocean churning below them and nodded. "I know a lot of things."

"Well, then tell me, oracle. What do we do now?" he asked her.

Victoria looked away from him. She didn't know. She had to save herself first. She didn't want to live like this forever. She didn't want to kill people just to survive another day.. Hour.. Minute. Depending on how this ..disease would affect. She didn't know what to say. She was drawn.

She loved Wyatt and she loved Chris. She couldn't help that. They had been her life, in all of her lives, and here she was now again in this paradox. She had to make a choice. She wasn't being fair to either of them. She had made a mistake in kissing Wyatt without making a choice.

Chris, what was he going to do once he found out. She wasn't sure she could keep this a secret from him and she knew Wyatt wouldn't. Right now he was looking at her like he had never been in love with anyone else before and she had been the one to wake him up from it all.

She felt her tears start running down her face again as she looked away from Wyatt. She didn't know what to do now. She didn't know where to go, what to say.. She wasn't being directed by anyone or anything and she was making a mess of everything.

God, what was she going to tell Chris?

It was then that her eyes linked with familiar jade green eyes and she gasped as she realized she wouldn't have to tell Chris anything because he had already saw it for himself.


	29. Caught Between Love and A Love Affair

Chris shakily hovered over the Book of Shadows like there was no tomorrow in sight. His crystalline green eyes searching every page for something he could use as he tore through the pages for some form of an answer to his problems. Something he could use to help him find out why. Why this was happening to him. Why this had even happened in the first place.

This wasn't supposed to have happened. It just had. It was crazy to think that this could possibly happen to him. His brother … his very own older brother had taken the first person he had ever really loved in his whole entire life away. Wyatt and Victoria hadn't even gotten along but Wyatt had found a way to steal her away from him.

Now, here he was standing alone in the dusty old attic. He was standing alone in the attic looking through the thick leather-bound Book of Shadows for something that could help him get her back or curse his brother for life.

His dark brown hair flew into his green eyes as he searched burning his sight as he tried not to cry over what had happened. He tried to stay calm but his heavy breaths raked through his body as he shook.

He had defended her to his last breath to his family. He had saved her life and her from being with Andrew's evil force. He had saved her from a curse that she had had to live with throughout each of her lives. He had been with her day and night for the last month learning everything he could about her, taking all of her time to fall even more in love with her, and now here they were.

They weren't anywhere really. He was here in the attic. She was there on the Golden Gate Bridge with Wyatt. She was there getting comforted by his brother. He was here alone.

The way his mind was working at the moment he was about ready to use any curse that came along. A curse. He could use a curse to change his brother into a frog and then he could throw him into some polluted pond somewhere else in the world. See how Wyatt liked being alone. See how Wyatt felt about revenge then.

Then, Victoria wouldn't be pulled in two different directions and she would be with him.

Chris didn't for one minute believe that Wyatt hadn't been trying to seduce her on to his side since day one. He had seen the way Wyatt had looked at her. Chris had tried to ignore it but now he couldn't ignore what had happened. Then, there were those seldom few times that they had been alone together. Chris didn't doubt his brother trying to get to her then.

Chris felt so stupid now. He should have paid more attention. He should have figured it out from the start. The time when she fainted, Wyatt had froze the whole club for her despite possible consequences, then there were all the times he had been angry towards her while Chris had been with her. Then, he had let Wyatt go and get her once she had fainted. He had let him go after her alone. Wyatt had had every chance in the world to change her mind. Chris had even helped him with it.

He had got to her though. Wyatt had to have been so proud of himself now. He had her finally. Wyatt now had the girl he had always wanted for himself. He now had Chris's girl all to himself. He must be so very proud.

"Victoria, why?" Chris whispered painfully into the sullen and heavy air around him.

Chris couldn't fight the tears anymore. They fell hard onto the illustrated pages of the Book of Shadows as he tried to fight them off. He knelt on the Book of Shadow's stand with his pale shaky hands behind his head in a tight clasp as he tried to stop shaking. He was so angry. So lost. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe what he had saw.

He didn't have to. It had to be a joke. He hadn't just seen her with his brother. He hadn't seen them smile at each other like they liked one another.

It hadn't looked as if they were in love at all. He had just jumped to conclusions. That had to be it. He had just overreacted over nothing and they were going to come home soon and laugh at him. Victoria would give him her famous sideways smile and then they would be together and alright and happy again. This would just be some joke that they had played on him.

But he couldn't help it. He couldn't help remembering.

She'd smiled so softly as he'd watched her lay there so comfortable in his own brother's arms like she laid in them everyday. Something Wyatt had said into her ear had made her smile.

It wasn't right. Wyatt never made her smile. Wyatt made her angry and annoyed but he never made her smile.

Chris had watched in horror as she'd opened her beautiful blue-violet eyes to the world. She was the only person with that color of eyes. A gods eyes, he had told her once when they had been kidding around.

She'd looked up at Wyatt then.

There was a pause in time. A rift maybe, Chris hadn't known for sure as his world fell apart around him. She'd looked back up at Wyatt with the same lovingly infatuated expression he was giving her. It was more veiled though. It had layers.

Had she ever looked at him that way?

She'd looked at Wyatt and a tear had fallen down her cheek as she did. She had looked so torn as if they were Romeo and Juliet and she had to let him go.

Chris had been standing there watching it the whole time. The cold wind had ripped through him as if he hadn't existed and he had just stood there taking it as if he were the one being thrown the punches. Chris hadn't known what to do. He hadn't even been able to speak. It was like a spell had been cast over him.

She had seen him then. She had seen him. Her ethereal blue eyes had given her away.

She had looked so guilty. Then she had slowly pulled out of Wyatt's embracing arms, but she hadn't ever made any conscious move to go towards him. She hadn't ever denied the fact that his own brother had been holding her so lovingly in his arms when she should have been with Chris seeing if Chris was alright.

"Chris," she had whispered rawly.

He had tried to rake his brain for something to say. He had tried to figure out something to laugh about in the situation or even have some sarcastic saying to spout off as if nothing had happened. Nothing had came to him though.

His heart had just closed up in an icy mask as he'd watched her. In the background, he had seen his very brother, the golden boy of the family, stand up beside in his spot. The whole time his brother's glowing blue eyes had never left her pale ethereal face.

It had made him sick to think of it. How long had this been going on? How long had she been with Wyatt and not him? How had he not seen it before?

"No," he said. "Don't even try to lie to me, Victoria."

"Chris, this looks really bad…" she tried to tell him as she came a few steps forward.

"I said no." he cried out angrily with burning emerald eyes glittering in fury.

"Chris, you don't get it. You don't know the whole story!" Victoria told him in a heavy voice.

Know the whole story? He didn't want to know the whole story. He had been the story once. Now, Wyatt had taken over. Chris sure didn't want to know how she had fallen for his brother or even why. He didn't want to know why they were together now and he wasn't still with her. No, the whole story was something he didn't want to hear.

"Don't even go there." he warned her in a tightly controlled but wavering voice.

"God, Chris. You can't just come in halfway and just make assumptions."

"I don't really need to. You already showed me what was going on between you two. I interrupted. Go back to what you were doing before I got here because I am leaving" Chris replied angrily waving his hands around him as he started to turn away from them. He didn't want them to be the last thing he saw before he orbed home. It wouldn't keep him sane if they were.

Victoria shook her head as the wind blew through and ran to him. Her hand connecting with his arm as he flinched away from her touch. "Chris?"

He hadn't intended to, but he had used his telekinesis on her. It had slammed into her body. She had flown a few feet back and hit the steel beams of the bridge hard. The sound of her body.. Her bones hitting the steal beam erupted through the air as he watched in shock. The wind that had been harassing her now erupted harder into him as he had then and he had almost lost his footing as he watched her slid down the beam.

Her dark reddish-brown hair cascaded down into her face as she had landed on the ground. Her blue eyes never leaving his as she did. She was in shock. Her body started shaking as hard as his was now. The wind ripped into her and pulled at her hair as she had sat in stunned silence. She looked so innocent. Her pajamas fluttering in the wind because they were too big on her as she gaped at him.

Chris shook a little too after he saw what he had done. He hadn't even thought of what he was doing he had just wanted her far from him. Then, she had hit the beam. He knew in the back of his mind that she had hit it hard. He knew something was going to be very wrong with her because of it. He shook that thought out of his mind thinking h was just overreacting.

"Chris!" Wyatt yelled at him instantly furious. He went to her to help her up and started to slowly get up from her position on the beam. Her forehead was bleeding from a large gash as she coughed hard against his brother's strong chest. "Stop this!"

Chris had never been able to be as built as his brother. He had always looked like a pip squeak to his brother. He had always been so tall and lanky while his brother had been tall and muscular. What Wyatt had always had Chris didn't. Now, he had Victoria too.

Chris didn't even know how he was controlling the weather around them. He just knew he was. He felt the wind bantering around him start to focus on Victoria and shriek through her body making her shake from the cold chill passing through her every second as it almost knocked her back against the beam again, but Wyatt found a way to deflect it.

Now, his brother was her knight in shining Armour. How wonderful for him.

"What, Wyatt? You gonna tell me how I screwed up again? Huh? How about you do that, brother? Tell me how much of a screw up I am and how stupid I was to not see you take her away from me. Go on, Wyatt. Tell me how easily you seduced her. Tell me how you did it right under my nose and I never suspected at thing." Chris yelled over the wind. " What's wrong now, Wyatt? Cat got your tongue?"

"It wasn't like that." Wyatt yelled back at him as his face became serious.

"Yeah, right, brother. Why her, Wyatt? Why, Victoria? Was it because you just couldn't help knowing that someone wanted me instead of you? Or was it a challenge? You wanted to see how long it would take? Who you would hurt? How long it would be till I found out? That was it, wasn't it?

"You had to have her for yourself. You didn't care who you hurt in the process as long as you got her in the end. You didn't care that I loved her. No, Wyatt, the almighty twice blessed, had to have what didn't belong to him."

"Chris," Wyatt tried to speak in shock.

"Don't even bother, Brother. You can have her now. You should both be so happy together," Chris spat at them and then he orbed away.

Chris looked up from the book and kneeled on the ground in weakness. "Victoria, why?"

He looked around the attic for an answer that never came. He just looked around himself in anger, but all he saw was the gray shadows of the furniture cluttering the attic. "I thought you loved me."

"What am I supposed to do?" he asked the quiet attic.

He tried to push the tears away then. He had smothered them all off of his face when he had saw the book come to life. The books pages started to flip through in a fast pace. They were being thrown from side to side by an unseen forceful wind as he swallowed hard a few times.

The pages finally stopped turning as they landed on a spell. Chris looked at it at first in apprehension as he read the title silently. It was the truth spell. He bit his lip for a moment reading about it and its consequences. Anyone who he came in contact with would have to tell him the truth and nothing but. It would work for twenty four hours. That was more then he needed. It was ingenious.

His apprehension faded as he nodded to himself and gathered his breath to speak the words.

"For those who want the truth revealed," he started slowly as he looked around the attic for any sign of confrontation.

While, downstairs Piper and Leo sat quietly on the couch. Piper and Leo were holding each others hands in worry as they listened to Phoebe talk. Phoebe sat on the edge of the chair with her arms folded over her chest. She was still in her white pajamas. She looked like a pessimistic saint as she stared at a patch of carpeting and spoke in a low voice.

She was finishing her statement. "I don't think we can trust Victoria anymore. I think that I misread the premonition I had of her. I think she's not on our side anymore. I think she might be a threat to us."

"Opened hearts and secrets unsealed." Chris read in a quiet tone.

Piper looked abashed the whole time and shook her head in confusion. Leo nodded as he listened to Phoebe. A pained expression passed over his tanned face. Everyone had accepted Victoria as one of their own in the family. She had fought with them before and she had been said to be on their side for years to come. It would be hard for any of them to vanquish her now.

"I think we need to vanquish her. I don't want to bring Chris or Wyatt into this though. They are to close to her and I don't want them to get hurt that way." Phoebe added as the silence infested itself in the room.

Piper answered. "I'm not killing or vanquishing anything. You're crazy. And for one thing, this magic concept you keep referring too.. Phoebe aren't you a little too old to be believing in magic. I mean come on. I though you grew out of that when Prue and I told you about Santa."

Phoebe gaped at her sister a second. Her hands slowly coming to her head as if a headache had come on and she met Leo's baby blue eyes and shook her head. "She's been acting like this all morning. Leo, what's up?"

Before Leo could answer, Paige orbed into the hallway muttering angrily to herself as she ran up the stairs to her room with her hands covering her head the whole time. She had been trying to cover up why she was home early from magic school, but it had not been lost on anyone in the living room.

Phoebe turned to look back at Piper and Leo. "Ok, I'm not seeing things right? Paige had green hair, right?"

"From now until it is now again,  
After which the memory ends," Chris casted softly as he heard running footsteps coming towards the attic.

Just as his words were uttered and his gaze fell over the attic's door, Wyatt and Victoria orbed into the kitchen where Wyatt instantly ran over to the sink to grab her a glass of water. Her coughing hadn't subsided from when she had been thrown at the beam on the bridge but had gotten worse. Wyatt had laid her carefully across the table in the kitchen and then he had went straight to the sink. He quickly brought the glass of water to her pink lips and she drank thirstily.

The coughing subsided slowly as she drew back from the glass and gasped for breath.

"For those who are now in this house  
Will hear the truth from other's mouths." Chris quickly said as the footsteps stopped and the attics door flew open.

"You alright now?" Wyatt asked.

"Feels like…." she whispered. "It's coming back."

"But I just… You.."

"I have to kill this time," she told him as she held tightly to the glass and tears glittered in her strange violet-blue eyes. "You should have let me die."


	30. Silver And Cold

**ALRIGHT, IT'S BEEN AWHILE. SORRY ABOUT THAT. IT WILL PROBABLY BE A LONGER WHILE TOO SINCE I HAVE LOTS OF LAST MINTUE PROJECTS AS WELL AS FINALS COMING UP. SORRY, GUYS. WNJOY THOUGH. **

**REVIEW ME AND TELL ME HOW YOU ARE LIKING IT ALSO!**

Wyatt shook his curled blond head at her. He wouldn't let her die. It wasn't an option for either of them on the bridge and it wasn't one now. They were going to figure out together how to stop her from being like this forever and they were going to do it soon. He didn't care how they did it as long as they found a cure. He wasn't going to just win her over now to lose her all over again like he had in every life before this.

Wyatt didn't care what the cost was as long as he found a way to save her again.

"How long can you hold on without killing again?" he asked her instantly serious. He didn't rule out the fact that she may have to kill again. He just was trying to see if he could figure out an ulterior move before doing so.

He didn't like the options at the moment. He didn't want to really bring Chris back into the equation either. However, he would if he had to. Watt knew Chris loved Victoria more then anything. He knew he would give her anything.

Wyatt didn't doubt he would save her life if he could. It wouldn't hurt him either. All he would need to do was give her a little bit of his life energy or whatever it was that she took. Wyatt didn't want to bring this problem to Chris now. Especially after everything that had happened in the last few minutes between all of them.

The shift was clear in the air as Wyatt stared down at Victoria. There also was something else magical in the air around them and he didn't know what it really was. He hoped that Chris hadn't done something stupid that he would regret later.

"I don't know. I can't control myself after a certain point." she answered. She somehow was a little better now then she was before, but he wasn't going to push the envelope. He had seen the sickness take over her and he was going to make sure she didn't have to go through hell again if he could help it. " I can't be here, Wyatt. Not around you or your family. I don't want to hurt anyone and that's exactly what I will do if I stay."

"I won't drop you off somewhere. You'll be worse off alone." he replied stroking her hair gently back from her pale face.

She shook her head earnestly. "Wyatt, I already got a taste of you. I need more and you would be the first person…"

He shook his head. He didn't believe she would do it. However, he had seen her half crazed because of it before in the alley and he didn't put it past her to do it again if it got that bad.

"Wyatt, you know what happened last time we fought each other. " she reminded him tiredly.

"Yeah, my family helped you fight the curse."

"More then that. I sent you to the Netherworld. I had you comatose. I kicked your ass." she replied as all he did was shake his head in stubbornness.

Just as she said this they heard some louder voices coming from the family room. She stared at the entrance to the room that was right through the solarium tiredly with her dark head lying on the table still. Her body was flat and uncomfortable lying on the smooth wood table but she couldn't help it.

She had to try not to use any energy more energy then necessary or else something bad would happen. Something very bad.

"Leo, I am not possessed by some magical power. You are insane." Piper shrieked.

"Piper, calm down." Leo ordered.

Wyatt exchanged a quick look with Victoria and she nodded to him. He quickly let go of her hand and started towards the solarium where he would have a better view of his arguing parents.

"I will not calm down. My husband is talking crazy talk and I am not calming down. No wonder Phoebe thinks the way she does. You've been feeding her all this magical nonsense. It's a surprise I haven't gone crazy with all of your nonsense by now."

"Piper, Leigh, our innocent, did this to you."

"Uh, no. No, I didn't. I didn't do anything here. Hel-lo, innocent girl kidnapped by aliens with powers. So, not the bad guy." Leigh's voice replied shakily.

"You see? Now you've scared our company." Piper replied reprimanding her husband.

"Piper, seriously. You are under a magical spell. You have to snap out of it."

"Oh, wow, really. So, Mr. Know it all, how did I come under this spell?" Piper asked.

Wyatt watched as he saw his mother from behind. Her hands were now on her hips as she stared at his father. Her long dark brown hair flying around her face in her anger as she fought with him. Leo, on the other hand, was trying to remain calm. His light blue eyes were snapping with impatience though. He had his hands flying around as he tried to explain to Piper what had happened.

"All I know is that the Elders called me up there to warn you that Leigh has received demonic powers. Anyone she touches she infects. Everyone is in danger. If she touches you then the worst trait you have or else your most unspoken insecurity or need comes out. Right now, you're need to be normal is taking over. Don't let it, Piper. You have to be strong."

Piper watched him a second and then started laughing. She let her head roll from side to side as she shook her head and then turned away and started for the kitchen. "Nice try, Leo. You almost had me."

"Piper!" Leo cried out in exasperation

Wyatt took a few steps back and ran back to the kitchen knowing they'd be there in a second.

Victoria had closed her eyes to the world for the small amount of time she knew she had till Wyatt returned. Pain was flying though her body from the bruises she had received from Chris's little telekinetic punch she'd received moments before. She didn't blame him for it either.

She had done something stupid. She had done something she shouldn't have ever done. She shouldn't have gotten Wyatt involved in any of this. He wouldn't know what was wrong with her then, he wouldn't be so close to her now, and she wouldn't have to worry about killing him. She wouldn't have kissed him either.

That was a biggie. She had kissed him. It had been in thank you, but… it had felt like more. He had definitely taken it as more and it had felt so good. It had felt natural. Of course, a few lifetimes together and anything would feel natural.

She hadn't meant to hurt Chris. She had just done it spur of the moment. She felt like a whore as she tried to ignore the pain rifling through her body. She deserved all the hell she was put through for it. She had brought it upon herself.

She had to see Chris. She knew that. She had to see him and talk to him. She had to explain what had happened. She didn't know how to. She couldn't now. Not in this condition, she wouldn't let him see her like this.

She had to talk to him though. She owed him so much more.

"Chris," she whispered as her voice faltered in the pain that was rushing over her body. It was coming back again . The hunger. She had to go. She couldn't stay like this forever.

Wyatt came back to Victoria in a hurry. The sight of her encompassed him as he did. She wasn't looking so well. She had broken into a sweat now and she had her eyes closed to the whole world around her. Wyatt came to her and brushed her reddish brown curls from her face as his eyes surveyed the doorway.

"Tora, you have to wake up. You hear me?" he asked in desperation.

Her eyes opened to him and looked up. Her eyes were so brilliant and bright he almost got lost in them. Their blue color reminded him of the sea at midnight as he stared down at her. He knew this wouldn't be any good. He knew the Elders had to have suspicions about Victoria too if they had them about the innocent.

Wyatt couldn't let anything happen to her. He couldn't. She would get hurt if he did and he had to protect her.

"Don't let them see me this way." as if reading his mind Victoria replied.

Wyatt nodded and kissed the top of her forehead. "I won't." he whispered. It was in vain though because his elbow caught the glass of water on the edge of the table. Before he realized even what he had done the glass had broken in shards all over the floor. The shards shimmered in bright knowing chasms light that blinded him in anger at having to be a klutz at this very moment.

Wyatt shook head drawn and scared. He didn't know what to do. He couldn't just orb her out without his parents knowing. She couldn't go anywhere she was too weak to travel and if she used her powers it might kill her. They were stuck.

He swallowed hard against the fact that they were going to be caught. Then he stood in front of her trying to cover her the best he could from sight, but he knew she would be seen. It was too late to say a spell because right then his mother and father arrived.

"Wyatt, what did you break?" Piper asked. "Please, not the fine china again."

"I just need to be invisible" Victoria whispered to herself.

"Wyatt, are you alright?" Leo asked his drained looking and slightly craze looking son.

"What are you trying to hide?" Piper instantly asked her son looking behind him at the table where there was most certainly something he was trying to conceal from them.

"Nothing." Wyatt instantly responded. He knew he was dead the moment he replied too fast. He saw the instant worry pass over his father's eyes and then he saw his mother's instant paranoia grimly creep into hers as they both glanced behind him on the table.

He knew what they would find too. He knew they would find Victoria. She would be lying there like a sitting duck. She would get hurt if they found out what was wrong with her. His mother hated anything evil and if she found out that Victoria wasn't exactly well because she had some secret dark cravings that were a little on the evil side of the spectrum then she'd blow her up.

Wyatt didn't want to lose her to his mother's ignorant anger towards evil. He didn't know what to do though. He couldn't just orb away with her because his father would follow him. He couldn't tell them the truth because they would either hurt, quarantine, or vanquish Victoria. He couldn't let that happen.

They pushed him aside and he turned instantly defensive as he tried to cover her as best he could to save her as he warned. "I won't let you hurt…"

Wyatt turned to protect her. He turned to thrown his arms around her, but Victoria wasn't there anymore. His parents looked at him like he was insane as his hands came up with thin air and he just gaped at the table.

Victoria was gone. He hadn't heard her shimmer out. He hadn't seen it. His parents hadn't either by the looks they were giving him. How had she done it?

It was like she had just disappeared off the face of the earth.

Victoria sat up quickly on dark wooden table as the world stopped around her. She waited for something. She waited for them to attack her. She waited for them to react to seeing her look so sickly.

She got nothing in return.

Wyatt was still there and he was a few feet back now staring at the table as if it were possessed. He was so confused. His parents were watching him. Piper had went to him and was checking him for a fever because of the way he was acting. He didn't look well. She knew that it was her own fault, but she couldn't help it as she watched them ignore her in surprise.

She waited to be discovered. Leo was staring right at her, but he didn't seem to see her. It was like he was seeing through her. Before she could even speak or move they stopped altogether. It was like all the times Piper had frozen the place to vanquish demons or stop innocents from seeing them vanquish evil.

This time they were all frozen though.

Victoria chalked this one up to either having gone completely nutso crazy or else having some greater power that was out there to hurt her.

"Miss me?" a voice asked from right beside her.

Victoria instinctively jumped off the table before any thought could even enter her mind. She almost fell over her own feet backing up from the voice that had whispered so seductively in her ear. Her skin, where it's breath had washed over it, was still warm and crawling.

What she saw sitting on the table where she had just jumped off made her blood stop. It was the very solid human-like form of her very own ghostly phantom that had been haunting as well as taunting her for the last 24 hours.

The man had semi-long dark black hair that fell down to his shoulders. It curled a little on the edges that he had pressed behind his ears. He had it slicked back fromm his very pale face that looked even more deathly pale because of the long black gown he was wearing. He threw her a chiseled smile. It was the smile of a dark angel as he bent down and bowed to her in greeting.

His dark black eyes came to meet hers as she realized who he was.

It was the ghost of Christmas future. It was none other than the Grim Reaper come to pay her a visit.


	31. Don't Fear the Reaper

Well, my fellow readers and reviewers, it's been a long time coming you could say.. I still have so much I have to cover with this story… however I must start with this very part of the fic where you kinda get why I named it Don't Fear The Reaper…. Sorry about it being so late. I just haven't been in the mood to write this for awhile. Basically because this is nearing the end of it all and I still have to set up how everything really goes down… Enjoy.. As always, r&r!

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Wyatt stood with his face frozen in shock. His deep sky blue eyes were staring out into the space of the room where she had once been lying over the table like a broken doll. His tanned skin was now pale in the aftermath of the shock of turning back to where she had been lying on the table to protect her from his own parents wrath and then not even to find her there.

He hadn't found her. She was no longer lying on the uncomfortable cherry wood table with her body feeling as broken as her mind did at the present moment and the pain vibrating through her as she had tried to remain conscious. She was no longer lying over the whole length of the table in a collapsed body that was slowly dying in its rage for power like she had been when he had turned to ward his parents off.

She was gone now from his sight and in the process of her disappearance she had scared him into shock.

His hands were at his sides balled into small fists now instead of fumbling through the air where she had once been. He had taken a few steps back as if that would bring about the vision of her to his sight. His long curled dirty blond hair flung heavily into his face as he stared out at the empty table in shock.

Piper stood right beside him. Her long dark brown hair streaked lightly with golden hues of copper as it flew down her back in waves of curls as she delicately had her hand placed over her son's pale forehead to see if he was really okay. Her dark chocolate colored eyes held the confusion as well as the worry over how oddly her son was acting as she tried to find some form of fever that could possibly explain why he was acting so weirdly.

Leo stood a few steps away from both of them. He had gotten closer to the table that Victoria had been laying on only moments prior. His dark blue eyes that shone fiercely in the suns rays were searching the table as if something would just appear out of no where. He was wearing his Elder robes at the moment as if he had just urgently appeared in the Manor with a warning that was directed towards the Charmed Ones.

Victoria wondered if that warning was also about her as she watched their still lives.

She glanced over at Death who stood beside her like a mere shadow in her face of doubt. He smiled a fierce smile filled with mystery that he had obtained over the long ages he had been around for. She knew in that moment he had seen the best as well as the worst fall and those very people had all probably done the very dame thing in death. That thing she was hoping for now; another chance at life.

The suns light didn't filter through the trees leaves normally blowing leaves outside the kitchens window as she looked over at him. He was surrounded by the color of golden unwavering sunlight looking like an angel.

Victoria reevaluated the situation and knew it wasn't really in her favor. She was in a room with Death. In this very room, he had control over time somehow and he had stopped it so that she could do nothing to get help form the very people she had come to care about of the small time she'd known them. She was alone in the room with the Grim Reaper and he had finally come to claim her.

Weirdly, she was almost willing to leave with him without a fight.

"Nice bag of tricks you have there." she commented in the dulling silence forming between them.

"Thank you. I thought you would understand your situation better if I showed myself this time round." he told her briefly placing his hands together in a mock sideways prayer as he watched her face.

"I have come to the end of my lesson now, haven't I?" she replied.

"You don't know everything yet. You do know that your newfound powers that I gave you come with a price. "

"Why did you give them to me in the first place?" she asked him as her eyes turned to his to reveal themselves now as the color of bruises.

"All in due time." he responded, cryptically causing her to laugh bitterly as she crossed her arms over her chest to keep the cold out.

"Now, what do I call you? Do you have a name? A real name? Or do you go by one of the famous ones like Death, Grim Reaper, or is it just Grim or Reaper?" she asked him irrationally hoping that she could somehow hold out as much time as she could in this moment between time and life till the Halliwell's would wake from their little sleep.

"Death will be good enough for the brief time we shall be acquainted." he replied in a smooth voice.

"Short?" she asked him feeling as if her mind wasn't connecting all the dots in her present situation. He had said short time. He was just here to get rid of her. He was just here to wick her off to her next life where there was no Chris or Wyatt there to love her. There, in that new reality, she would be reborn to a life she didn't want to live. She wanted to live this life. She was sick of all the tragedy connected to her life now as it was, but she wanted to live through it.

"Short." he repeated in confirmation to her fears as his beady black eyes searched hers.

For a moment, Victoria considered trying to escape Death. How did you really escape Death though? He could find you anywhere you went and then he could use anything or everything around you just to cause your untimely death. He had to kill you to keep the natural pattern of life in order. If she didn't die when she was destined to then the whole world would go into some version of chaos, but she had so many things still left unfinished. She still has so much time left to live.

"Sadly, you also have come to a hard bend in the road," he informed her as he made a small hand movement towards the Halliwell's frozen before her.

Victoria stared over at Wyatt as she bit down hard on her lower lip. Death knew her way to well. He must have been spying on her again for him to have seen the hell she had just put Chris through. She rubbed her back slightly as she remembered this. The ghost of the pain that had been raking through her body since Chris's telekinetic body slam at the Golden Gate Bridge was barely existent as she gave Death a brief look in askance.

"Your pain is over now." he replied in a calming voice. His voice didn't' calm her though. The effect it had on her was the exact opposite. She was stuck realizing why the world was really stuck in pause around her and why Death was there with her. He had finally come to claim her and this time it really was for real. She couldn't escape him again and he was here to remind her of that fact by displaying his powers to freeze the very people she cared about in time.

"Oh my god. Am I dead?" she whispered in panic.

She hadn't done anything she had needed to do let alone wanted to do. She wasn't supposed to die early. She was supposed to live longer then this. The Elders had even said so. She had just gotten her second chance at life and now she had no purchase. She couldn't just die now. It was impossible. It had to be a mistake.

"God has nothing to do with this, my dear." Death replied to her statement and smiled demurely at her panic.

She swallowed hard as she looked over at Wyatt again. She had unfinished business here. She hadn't gotten the chance to fix anything that she had just screwed up with Chris or Wyatt. She felt like hell for that. She needed to talk to them. She needed to fix the situation if only just a little.

She needed to stop the feuding between the brothers if that was the only thing she could do. She had to keep them together. They needed each other and there was no doubt about that. If they didn't stay together and keep their family bond then the world was as good as gone.

She really had screwed up.

She didn't want another replay of the future that she had seen in Chris's memories of the other timeline. She didn't want to be the cause of their whole brotherhood just ending. She didn't know how to fix what she had already damaged but she had to. She owed them both that.

For a moment, she wondered if Death was able to choose sides.

"Can you.. Can you choose sides?" she asked him.

He gave her a look of annoyance at being asked such a question and then he shook his head. "No, I am only here to take the souls on the list."

"Oh, oh good." she replied stupidly as she tried to get her thoughts together.

"Who would you have chosen?" Death asked her as if reading her mind on the issue of Chris and Wyatt.

She smiled as tears welled into her burning violet-blue eyes. "I don't know."

Death took her answer lightly. He didn't press for a reason. He merely stood there watching her with a weird expression over his face that she couldn't even place. Then, he shook his thoughts away and reached his pale white hand out to her. She knew it was her time to take it whether she wanted to or not. Fate had sided against her again.

"You must come with me now," Death informed her as she stared over at Wyatt for what would be her last time.


	32. Come As You Are

Alright.. This is for all you guys bored on X-mas eve. Enjoy. Also, happy holidays and eat lots of goodies. In the meantime, I made this a long one to make up for the very short filler chapter I already put up and also for the long time I made you all wait to read this. R&R!

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Chris quickly flipped the Book of Shadow's pages in order to stop whoever it was that was throwing the door to the attic open from seeing what he had been really up to while he was up there. He took a quick breath and prepared himself for anything. He waited to see Wyatt angry and vengeful over what he had just done to Victoria. He waited to feel Wyatt's powers throw back into the wall where he would then come up to him and attempt to beat him to a bloody pulp while making himself feel better.

He waited maybe even to see Victoria. He wanted it to be her there in the doorway to the attic with the pale hall light glowering down over her pale porcelain skin and making her reddish-brown hair glow. He wanted her to come to him with tears burning in her bright eyes as she asked him to forgive her. He wanted to see her eyes burning brightly into his with their strange blue-violet color illuminating every emotion that she had as she looked up to him in forgiveness.

Hell, he half expected his mother or father to have found out and have come running. He expected them to be the ones in the doorway ready to yell at him for being so careless and hurtful towards Victoria in the first place. His mother would yell at him for treating a girl that way and she would blame herself for the way he had acted by something she had screwed up doing with him while she had been raising him. Then, his father would punish him somehow for doing what he had done like taking his powers away until he realized the magnitude of how horrible he had reacted.

No one he had expected was there though. Instead, his Aunt Phoebe was standing in the doorway with a rare gleam of a smile tinting her dark eyes to a light doe brown color. She smiled at him for a moment as she paused in the doorway and then she strode into the room as if she owned it. Within seconds, she was beside the Book of Shadows and she was elbowing him aside.

Chris backed up a few feet. He was slightly taken aback by how his aunt was acting towards him. He felt awkward still standing in the room with her as she sized up the book before her and then her hands started to fluttered through the pages greedily as she searched for something hidden inside. Phoebe took in the spells covetously as she giggled softly to herself. Then, she found what she was looking for as Chris watched her act like a crazy woman.

Sure, Chris had known his aunt forever and given time she had become a little eccentric. Crazy at times, flamboyant at others, but not like how she was acting right at that very moment. Chris quickly took a peek at the page that his aunt was looking at and instantly knew something was wrong. His eyebrows raised quickly as he realized that she was looking at a personal gain spell in the book that would bring her new magical powers if she used it. She was against personal gain just as much as his mother. Especially after the incident with the Tribunal taking away her powers in order to teach her a lesson for using them in the first place to see her own future instead of helping other innocents with theirs. So, for her to be regarding this spell while giggling like a hyena only made Chris even more paranoid over the whole situation.

So, now that he was seeing his oldest aunt act like a nut bag and then looking at a personal gain spell he knew something was really really wrong. Chris quickly took a few steps away from his aunt. The steps he took were the slow steady steps of someone trying to walk away from a rabid animal without getting hurt. Phoebe looked up at him for a moment as he backed away from her as if she were the enemy and then she gave him a look that could kill.

"Chris, what do you think you're doing?" she asked him.

"Well, Aunt Pheebs I was planning on going downstairs and seeing how everyone was doing." he lied instantly.

"Right? Chris, seriously if you act like that around them they are seriously going to know what is going on. Especially, with you and Victoria."

At her name being spoken in front of him after what he had witnessed, he flinched. It was still hurting his ego as well as his heart to have believed that even for a moment he had had true love with her. It had been a lie from the first moment. She had been in love with Wyatt all along. He had just been leftovers. He had just been the one on the side till she got Wyatt for herself.

"Phoebe…" he protested.

"I know. I know. Your pride is hurt as well as your heart. Chris, I think you need some time alone." she replied. "Why don't you go and take a nap instead?"

"Right.. A nap.." he replied. "Aunt Phoebe, I don't think that a nap is going to make this any easier on me."

"Have it your way.. I have something I have to do so." she replied as she made a wave of her hand towards him in a signal for him to leave her alone.

"What is that?" he asked her through slanted eyes already knowing it was something she shouldn't be doing.

"Why conjuring up a new power for myself. I can't just wait around forever for the Tribunal or even the Elders to realize I am so ready for a new power. Sometimes a girl has got to take life into her own hands and that time is now."

"Right," he drawled out deciding to bring his parents in as backup to the situation. "While, you do that I am going to.."

He didn't finish. He knew Phoebe was realizing what he had planned to do as her eyes slit in mistrust. Before she could stop him, he bolted for the door. He had to tell someone what she was doing before this situation got any worse.

"Chris? Chris? Oh come on, Chris. Come back and I'll… I'll help give you another power to. You know, it'll be our little secret." she cried out running after him.

He made it down the stairs to the attic before he quickly turned and used his telekinesis to throw a few dressers in the hallway in her way. He knew otherwise that she would use some of her kickboxing on him and he didn't want to deal with it now. So, he had blocked her way to make it easier for himself to get away in time to tell his parents before she got to him and took him out with a roundhouse kick. Now, his Aunt Phoebe was blocked from descending the stairs after him and he was free to go after his parents without worrying about Phoebe attacking him. Chris ran down the next flight of stairs and ran down the hallway to the kitchen where he heard voices and knew his family had to be.

He pushed opened the door to the kitchen to see the last thing he had ever expected to see in his whole life. His run flew short as he stopped immediately at the sight of her. Victoria was there in front of him. She was only a few inches away from him and she looked so torn. Her dark eyes were like the colors of violets after the rain. They were looking at him with surprise as well as sadness as their eyes met. His breath caught in his throat as her pale mauve lips parted at the sight of him and tears framed her dark eyelashes.

It wasn't her look that stopped him dead halt, but the person who was with her. It wasn't Wyatt for sure. There beside her stood a man fully dressed in black. He had dark black hair that curled under and hung down to his shoulders. His dark eyes glimmered over Chris's souls as a cold chill passed through his body the instant their eyes met. A smile placed itself over the pale face of the man as Chris realized the man was none other then the Death himself.

Death was there in his very kitchen. Right beside him was Victoria looking so torn and holding his hand in her own.

As Victoria took Death's hand in hers she'd felt the world coming back to life around her. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Wyatt turning to look in her direction as if he had finally caught the sight of her. Piper's hand was still resting over his forehead as he did so and Piper's brown eyes blinked as she looked for the phantom fever to explain how her son was acting. Wyatt's cerulean blue eyes met hers as she swallowed hard not knowing what she could do to save herself.

This time she knew Wyatt could see her. His mouth opened in surprise as his eyes met her tortured eyes and then his gaze drifted down to her hand that was resting inside of Death's. She didn't know what to do. All she could do was watch his reaction go from surprise to confusion to realization and then to panic as he realized she wasn't holding Death's hand for her own health.

"Wyatt," she whispered.

"No!" he cried out as he flew straight at them as if he could do something to stop what was already happening.

His dirty blond curls flung into his face as his blue eyes glinted in determination over trying to save her as he did. His long graceful fingers reached for hers as he tried to find purchase. His mother stayed in her spot as she and Leo finally saw Victoria there and realized why their son was acting so weirdly.

Then, she saw someone else entering the room with them. From the opposite side, she saw Chris appear out of no where. He ran into the kitchen as if he was being chased by some unseen evil. His dark hair flew away from his face as he stopped in mid run. His emerald eyes met hers as he did and he swallowed hard at the sight of her with Death.

Just as he did, Wyatt s hand found hers . She felt the briefest touch from his warm hand and then it all feel away into a bright flash of white light. The frazzled white lights that blinded her brought with them a sharp pain that vibrated through her body as she screamed.

She felt knives clawing at her skin as she screamed out in pain. Riptides of freezing cold licked at her skin as it pierced her mind into a current of darkness . All her sense felt as if they were being ripped form her body painfully one by one.

Then, it all stopped. Her deaf ears found no sounds of life around her as her fall stopped. In a bright vibrant current, she was pulled back into herself. She realized then that she'd been pulled hard from her body before being placed inside of it all over again and that was why she had gone through so much pain.

She was lying on the green grass beside the lily pond outside of her house. The sun was gleaming through the clouds everyone once in a while playing a game of peek a boo with her five-year-old self as she watched it. A few lilies were strewn over the ponds murky blue-gray water as she laid peacefully right next to it. Her bright pink and purple fairy wings laid beside her on her other side.

She'd seen something in the pond. It had winked at her as she'd rested beside it. She'd thought at first that it was some form of fairy magic, but then she had been so desperate to have whatever it was that was inside the water that she hadn't even thought of the consequences.

She'd been in the middle of the pond when the weeds growing in it had tangled in her feet. Then, she had panicked not knowing what to do. The next thing she knew she was lying beside the pond. No one had been around to rescue her. She hadn't been able to save herself and yet she had been lying there beside the pond as if nothing had happened.

She'd laid there on the cold hard ground coughing. Then she'd looked up to see a dark shadow above her. She'd never seen the face of the shadow because the sun had blinded her from it.

It had spoken to her though. "Be careful, Victoria. Some things aren't worth dying for." It had whispered to her in a gentle voice filled with some resemblance of warmth.

She had felt his brief touch as he had gently and loving stoked her cheek. Then, he had placed the golden treasure inside the palm of her hand before leaving her to rest on the shore beside the pond.

Before she could get a hold of her bearings, she was transported to her 17th birthday. She had just gotten her car as well as her license. She'd been with her family visiting relatives on the east coast and she'd had to go to the mall to get a few things that her mom had forgotten to get for her party. She had been on her way back and lost control of her car in a freak blizzard that had started while she had been inside the mall.

She'd woken up inside the car. It had been turned upside down in the accident and she hadn't been able to get out. Her cars engine had been off for some time and the cold had sunken into her bones. She had stared to panic. Then he had appeared in the backseat. His shadow had consumed her.

"Shh." he'd whispered into her ear.

"Who?" she asked in surprise as her teeth had chattered.

"That's of no consequence. Help is coming. Don't be afraid."

As if under his spell, she'd fallen asleep once he had spoken to her. A little while later, she had been saved. Everyone had been surprised that in the time that she was there inside of the car she hadn't been frostbite of seriously wounded.

Suddenly, the cold world of her old car disappeared and she found herself back on her wedding day. He was with her again. She was lying on the wooden ground of the veranda sleeping. A few white and red roses were strewn over her as their thorns stroked her skin coarsely. He'd knelt beside her then, and touched her cheek so lovingly as if he were her lover. Then he pulled himself back as he took on a professional standpoint on the situation, "Wake up. It's not your time yet." he'd told her.

Her eyes had opened then to see the world around her. Victoria couldn't help but stand spellbound to realize he had been there with her every time helping her though it. She didn't get a chance to react to any of it though because a moment later she was being transported to another memory and this one she knew too well. This one had been the day her life had started as well as the day her curse had begun.

Instantly she was transported to another day he had been there watching as she and Andrew stood together. It had been slated as her final day on earth in this lifetime. He had been waiting. As she watched the scene unfold around her she was surprised to actually be able to see everything that was going on around her. Which included Death as he waited with a blank expression over his face as he waited for the time to come.

"I've never seen my 19th b-day before." She'd realized as she agreed to life with Andrew.

_Ten_ chimes corrupted the air around them.

"Prove to me you love me." Andrew had said quickly as he'd realized how quickly time was passing.

She'd quickly kissed Andrew passionately letting the kiss let through all the feelings of hope and happiness infiltrate it. She wanted to make him feel exactly what she was feeling. This was the only way she knew how.

Then, Andrew had been pulled out of Wyatt's body. Wyatt then had quickly pulled away from her. As he'd pulled away from their kiss he'd seen her violet-blue eyes open to see him. It was then that he'd saw something inside of her that scared him.

He'd pulled farther away from her as he gasped for breath. It was deadly whatever was inside of her eyes. He'd seen that very look in demons eyes when they killed people. It was a cold and inhumane look that had never been there before. He took a step away from her as confusion went over her ethereal face.

It was then as she watched her life being replayed in this memory that she realized that Wyatt had known for a long time that she had changed.

_Eleven_ chimes past through the room from the clock.

_Twleve_ chimes went through the room as fate caught up with them. Victoria, who'd been looking at him in worry a moment ago, at the end of the last chime, started coughing.

She'd started coughing so hard that it didn't even look as if she were breathing. She'd looked at him and reached out an arm to him, but before he could take it she fell. Wyatt quickly ran the few feet to her and caught her before she could hit the floor.

She'd kept coughing harder and harder in his arms as tears filled her violet-blue eyes. She'd looked up at him with all the fear of a dying woman.

As she watched herself dying the ghost of the pain shivered through her body. Victoria took a gasp of air as she watched feeling as consumed by fate as she watched her memory progress. She glanced over at Death and in his eyes she saw sadness. She had never thought that Death could feel. She would have expected feelings to be too risky for Death in his line of work.

Victoria glanced back at the scene before her as her coughing stopped ragging through her body, but now had then been replaced with her gasping for air that didn't seem to be coming.

She saw the look of fear and determination mingle over Wyatt's face as he looked down on her. He wasn't going to let her go then and she knew he wasn't going to now as she watched him. He surveyed the room looking for something.

His eyes met Chris's and in a silent moment they shared a look of urgency as Chris realized it was his brother. Chris threw the quartz crystal ring straight at Wyatt with his last ounce of strength so that he could put the ring on her finger as quickly as possible.

"Hurry." Chris had told him in a voice barely above a whisper.

Wyatt quickly put the ring onto her wedding ring finger and then watched to see what would happen. Just as he had done that, Death had kneeled down beside her a second before. He had held her hand in his own for one brief moment in time. It was then that her life had vanished and her consciousness had bottomed out.

An instant glow of red light surrounded her body. Death looked up form it with an then he got back to his feet as she fell.

Wyatt hadn't been able to hold onto her. She'd slowly fallen to the ground as if in slow motion. Death had his hand on hers the whole time as she fell to the ground. She knew then that somehow he had kept her from slamming into the ground, and when she had finally hit it the red light broke out of her body and slammed up towards the sky.

Wyatt backed up a few feet and collapsed beside his little brother as they watched the red light glow around her. A moment later, the red light disappeared and the room was turned into the black void it actually was. Wyatt looked on in silence along with Chris as they watched her.

Victoria laid on the floor of the room not moving with her body sprawled straight out in the way she had fallen. At first, Wyatt thought she was dead and they had lost the fight, but then he saw the sudden rise and fall of her chest as she took in her first breath of air.

"Is she.." Chris asked.

"She's fine. Just asleep somehow. I'm thinking this is where sleeping beauty comes into play." Wyatt told his.

"Yeah, well I hope I'm prince charming then." Chris replied, in a ragged voice.

Chris then had kneeled down beside her. There he looked over her peaceful face as he brushed her soft reddish-brown hair away from her pale face. As he did, Death gave up his place next to her and moved away from them. .

Chris watched her for one long moment as he ran his hand through her hair. Then, he'd bent down beside her and kissed her so softly on her rose colored lips. As he kissed her softly she opened her violet eyes to see the world around her.

"Hey." he whispered down at her as she looked into his blazing green eyes once the kiss had ended.

"Hey." she replied, smiling.

Victoria glanced over at Death as her memories went black. She found herself then in the place she expected to be with him. They stood in the Manor. Only this Manor was in black white and gray colors. Everything was subdued and dark here in this world.

She had beat Death before. She had beat him every time and when she hadn't beaten him at his own game he had saved her. She doubted that that was fair in the rule books of life and death. She also knew he would never give her a straight answer for why he had done what he had done in the past. She'd seen his face though. In the last memory, when Chris had kissed her to revive her and in doing so woken her up to live again she had seen the look of pain flash over his face.

Death had somehow in some way fallen in love with her.

Victoria swallowed hard. She had so may questions and so many things to say but she was stopped from saying any of it. She realized that in this dark world where the color black dominated everything she was the only thing in color. The very spot she stood in as well as herself and her clothes were all in color. She doubted that that was right in any way.

She also strangely remembered the myth about Hades kidnapping his own bride for himself and she stared over at Death's pale tired face.

"Was it supposed to hurt?" she whispered in the subdued silence.

"Not unless you were alive when I brought you here," he replied. It was a cryptic answer she knew that, but it finally answered something for her now that she had been afraid of since the moment he had appeared before her.

"I'm not dead then." she replied. It had started as a question but ended up a comment.

"No, not yet."

"But you lead me on!"

"It's a joke I play on a select few," Death replied in dark humor.

"Yeah, but who's laughing?" she replied, annoyed.

"No one, Victoria." an unmistakable voice replied before Death could.

Victoria stopped dead in her place. She had been about to slap Death right across the face for all the mind games he had been playing with her when the voice had broken the silence. She had wanted to hear that voice for years. Her throat closed as she turned so hopeful that her tears fell from her eyes.

There was only one word that she could utter.

"Mommy?"


	33. Losing You

Sorry about the long wait. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how I want everything to happen.

Uh, if you were confused by the last chapter I'm sorry. Quick summary of it as well as what happened: Victoria is a vampire. She had an attack and Wyatt saved her by giving her his life energy. Chris came along and saw them cuddling now he's pissed. Death came for Victoria and now she is with him. Paige has green hair. Phoebe is in the attic trying to get anew power because she was infected by the innocents demonic power. Piper was also infected by it and was completely oblivious to being a witch until Death took Victoria out of the kitchen. Wyatt and Chris both saw Victoria go and now are confused and angry with one another over her.

-

She was only a few inches away from him and she looked so torn. Her dark eyes were like the colors of violets after the rain. They were looking at Chris with surprise as well as sadness as their eyes met. His breath caught in his throat as her pale mauve lips parted at the sight of him and tears framed her dark eyelashes.

It wasn't her look that stopped him dead halt, but the person who was with her. It wasn't Wyatt for sure. There beside her stood a man fully dressed in black. He had dark black hair that curled under and hung down to his shoulders. His dark eyes glimmered over Chris's souls as a cold chill passed through his body the instant their eyes met. A smile placed itself over the pale face of the man as Chris realized the man was none other then the Death himself. As he realized this, Wyatt also did to as he realized the danger of the situation.

Death was there in his very kitchen. Right beside him was Victoria looking so torn and holding his hand in her own.

As Victoria took Death's hand in hers, Wyatt's cerulean blue eyes met hers as she swallowed hard not knowing what she could do to save herself.

His mouth opened in surprise as his eyes met her tortured eyes and then his gaze drifted down to her hand that was resting inside of Death's. He could tell that she didn't know what to do.

"Wyatt," she whispered as if he were her only hope in the world.

"No!" he cried out as he flew straight at them as if he could do something to stop what was already happening.

His dirty blond curls flung into his face as his blue eyes glinted in determination over trying to save her as he did. His long graceful fingers reached for hers as he tried to find purchase. His mother stayed in her spot as she and Leo finally saw Victoria there and realized why their son was acting so weirdly.

From the opposite side of the room, Chris appeared out of no where. He ran into the kitchen as if he was being chased by some unseen evil. His dark hair flew away from his face as he stopped in mid run. His emerald eyes met hers as he did and he swallowed hard at the sight of her with Death.

Just as he did, Wyatt's hand found hers. Hope filled him for one short moment as he felt the briefest touch from her warm hand and then it all feel away into a bright flash of white light. The frazzled white lights that blinded everyone in the kitchen brought with them a sharp pain filled screamed that he knew belonged to Victoria.

She had slipped right through his fingers. Wyatt couldn't believe it. He had had a hold of her and then she hadn't been there anymore. It was almost as if she didn't exist anymore, but he knew too well that she did.

Wyatt stared at his tanned fingers. Before them was the spot she had once been standing in with Death. He had stupidly waved his hand through it a moment ago to see if he wasn't hallucinating. He had half hoped that it would be like some sick magic trick that would bring her back like saying 'abra cadabra'. He didn't get her back though.

Instead, the spot stayed completely barren of her presence. Victoria had disappeared again and there was nothing he could think of doing to find her. He was still in shock of everything that had happened that day.

He had woken up and tried to kill her. Then, when he had gotten her alone he had finally found out what was going on with her and he had helped her. Even if it had only lasted a few minutes, he had felt a happiness as well as some form of peace that his life up till that moment had been lacking. He had had her to himself and she had kissed him. She had cared about him. She had finally realized that he loved her.

Then, Chris had come out of no where to find them. He had went crazy and now here they were. He had brought her home to see if he could do something to help her in her weakening state. If only Chris hadn't let his emotions take over for him and thrown her back against the bridges steel beam. She would still be okay if he hadn't done that, but he had.

Anything that her body had been living off of had been destroyed when he had done that.

When his mother and father had came into the kitchen he had known they would figure out what was happening to her. He had been so afraid of her getting vanquished from them that he had never thought that she might have been dying.

If she had wouldn't there have been a body? Her body wasn't lying on the table like she had been before any of this had happened. She had went with Death and now he had no idea what to do to help her.

He didn't get how she could have just disappeared from his sight either just to show up again while being pulled away from him by Death. He knew the angel of Death. He had seen him in a few of his own close calls and he had seen him before when he had taken his friend Abe. It was not right that he would be here now after everything.

He couldn't stand around and figure out why he had come in the first place. He had to do something before it was too late for her. He had to save her.

Wyatt had had a plan before this had all happened. It had been a stupid plan, but still it had been a plan never the less. He had planned to save Victoria. Once he had got his parents away from her, he had planned on trying to heal her or else maybe seeing if Chris would help her. Then Chris would know what was wrong with her and could possibly understand what he had come into.

But that plan had went to hell now!

Damn it! Everything had went crazy. He couldn't believe what was happening. This was too much to deal with at any given moment. First the premonition about mom dying and then Victoria. Then, the innocent that was with them at that very moment that they had to protect.

Victoria? Where are you? Where would he take you? Wyatt fumed silently as questions flew his mind. Why did he want you?

She had a destiny. She had to fulfill it. The Elders has said she was supposed to help them in the future with many innocents. She had to be with them for that. Death just couldn't take her away from them like that.

Of curse, the Elders had foreseen that before she had become a psychic vampire. They had never foreseen that, had they? They had been wrong before. Why did they have to be wrong about her?

"What just happened?" Piper asked in a high pitched voice on the verge of panic as she looked back and forth from her son to the spot he had just waved his hand through.

"Mom, calm down." Chris instantly told her. Good old, Chris. Chris was always trying to make everyone feel better even though he had to be going through hell at the moment.

All because of me, Wyatt knew as he let his apathetic gaze reflect off of Chris as he looked back at the spot on the floor that Victoria had been standing in. She hadn't wanted to go. She hadn't known what else to do. Everyone knew you couldn't go against death without coming up against the consequences. She hadn't wanted to put them in danger.

"No, no no. I am not going to calm down when I just saw Death in my kitchen. That was him, wasn't it? I wasn't just seeing things. Why did he have Victoria? What haven't you two been telling me?" Piper cried.

"Mom, a lot of things have happened in the last few hours that you don't know about." Wyatt told her.

"Hell of an understatement wouldn't you say, brother?" Chris asked him with guarded dark jade green eyes and an angry curve of his mouth.

Piper looked back and forth from the two as the tension filled the room like daggers ready to be thrown at the victim. Wyatt stood pensively taller in his spot near the kitchen table that Victoria had been lying on only moments before. His blue green eyes sparked at Chris's words and his mouth curved wryly as his eyes slit. Chris opposite of him stood with his hands bunched into fists that the tension in the air was willing to release into a storm of fighting. His dark brown hair cut into his eyes sharply as he glared at his brother in the silence that consumed the kitchen.

He hadn't meant for it to happen. He couldn't help the way he felt for her. It had always been there. Even when she had fist arrived to kill him, he had felt it. It was timeless and he couldn't just forget about it when every time she was in the same room as he was he was instantly pulled towards her.

He hadn't started the kiss either. It had been her. He had wanted it and he had kissed her back. He admitted it, but he hadn't started it.

"What is wrong with you two?" she asked them being the voice of reason. "Victoria was just kidnapped and you two are fighting like a bunch of kids. If anything you two need each other to figure out how to get her back!"

"Oh, I am sure Wyatt can figure out how to get her on his own." Chris retorted as his words cut into Wyatt like a double edged sword.

"What?" Piper asked as her hand came up to her head. She rubbed her temples as her vision blurred slightly into grotesque shadows of gray light. She knew something was wrong as she did so, but she had to keep her children together if anything were going to get accomplished. "Boys!"

"Listen to your mother on this one. She's right about this. You two can't be at odds with each other if we have to go up against the Angel of Death." Leo piped in.

"Maybe you could have told that to Wyatt before he did what he did!" Chris told his father angrily.

"What? Wyatt, what did you do?" Leo asked his son as he turned to focus his calm green eyes on Wyatt.

"Before he tried to kill her, then orb her to my bridge. Before he kissed her." Chris listed angrily. "Maybe, we wouldn't be here right now if he had kept his hands off my girl in the first place."

"Boys!" Piper tried again as her other hand wrestled for a grip on the island in the center of the kitchen.

"No, mom. You always side with him. Why is that? Why him over me all the time? Why am I always in the wrong and he is right?" Chris asked spiting out the last few words. "Your perfect little angel."

"Chris, shut up." Wyatt threatened him as anger started to take over his gut instinct to let Chris go.

"Why, Wyatt? So I can watch in the corner while you steal everything else I ever cared about away from me? I think not!" Chris yelled at him.

Wyatt hadn't meant to do it. It had just happened. There had been too much going on that day that had fried his nerves and then when Chris's anger had started to come out more towards him he hadn't been able to keep it in.

Lightning crackled from his bare hands as it burst out of his sweating palms and into Chris. The lightning collided with Chris's shoulder. Wyatt realized what he had done as soon as he had felt the lightning fly out of the palms of his hands and he backed up. Instantly, he cut the contact off of the lightning so that the blast would not go any more then skin deep.

He hadn't been thinking. He hadn't meant to hurt his brother. He hadn't even felt the power erupt from him till it was too late. He had just been so angry.

He loved her more then Chris did. He didn't care what Chris said. He would have never hurt her on purpose like Chris had.

Chris fell back on white and blue wallpapered wall. His hand on his shoulder as he stared down at his wound in complete surprise. He looked up with stormy green eyes as something inside of his sides shut off and he angrily used his telekinesis to throw Wyatt back against he wall.

Leo quickly went in between them as he yelled. "No more! Not now."

Wyatt stared at his brother from his spot sitting on the ground. Then, he plied himself off of the hardwood floor as he slowly got up rubbing his head. He saw blood on the back of his hand as he did, but he didn't do anything about it. He glared at Chris instead as Chris glared back at him.

He knew better then his father that this hadn't ended yet. It would never end until they found out who she had chosen for good, or else until one of them had beaten the other up beyond reproach.

Leo saw the blood on his oldest sons hand and went to heal his son, but Wyatt shook him off and ran up the stairs to the attic. Wyatt knew there was only one thing he could do to save Victoria. Since no one else wanted to help then he was on his own and he would need as much power as possible to do it. Then, he and Chris could solve this once and for all.

"Chris?" asked Leo as he turned to his younger son who was leaning against the wall.

"Don't even, dad. You made it perfectly clear just now who you care more about." Chris told him orbing out of the house without getting healed.

Leo looked at the spot Chris had been standing in with a hurt expression passing over his features. Millions of thoughts pushed their way through his mind as he swallowed hard on bile. He had done it again. He had picked sides and he had chosen Wyatt first to heal. Chris was hurt worse, but he had seen the blood on Wyatt's hand and instinct had taken over. No matter what he had done to avoid it, he had become a bad father.

He couldn't take being in the kitchen anymore. He couldn't stand to be there. He looked over at Piper as she stared at him sadly. Her hand reaching out to him in his hurt state of mind. He wanted her comfort but he couldn't take it at that moment. So, he orbed out of the Manor also.

"Boys," Piper whispered yet again in the empty kitchen and then she fell to the floor in a dead faint.

Just as she did an explosion coming from the attic raked the house.


	34. author's note

Bad news. I just found out that I am losing the internet within a week. I don't know when I will be able to update my stories or even when we'll get a different internet hookup.. So, I won't be able to update a lot.

I have the internet for another week. So, I will try to update at least one chapter for every story before I lose it completely. I'll still be updating it. However, now I can only do it from campus when I have time and there is already the tricky business of spring break.


	35. All That I Got

Chris stood back from the edge of the Golden Gate bridge. He had to admit that he was a glutton for punishment. Of all the places he could have went he just seemed to keep getting called back to the bridge which wasn't right since it was here that he'd found them.

Victoria. He could barely think of her without a sudden rage taking over his mind and his body. She was supposed to be his girl. She was supposed to be in love with him. In no way was she supposed to have gone and left him battling his family over whether or not that she could be trusted. In no way, was he supposed to find her on top of his bridge cuddling up to his brother the one she hated and the one Chris had been afraid would have killed her himself if Wyatt had had a chance.

Victoria. Why? None of this made any sense.

Yesterday, if someone would have told him that his brother was going to seduce his girlfriend and his family was going to consider killing her he would have told them they were mad. Of course, yesterday he had first started really noticing that she was lying to him about being sick.

He should have seen the signs. There was no way she could have been fine five seconds after he had barely been able to heal her from a dead faint. This morning she had been fine. They'd woken up together. Everything had been perfect and fine considering how their lives were always overrun with new innocents and no real peace of minds. But then again she had gone crazy. She hadn't even recognized him to put her shield down against him and him being the dumb loyal type had tried to break through it when she'd been hyperventilating. He'd ended up unconscious for the most part of that and then the second part he had been defending her to his parents. He'd ran blindly to her defense again when he'd realized Wyatt had taken her away from the manor.

All of it was for nothing though. She'd been fine. She'd been more than fine. She'd been cuddling up to Wyatt. And the looks. He had never seen his brother look like that at any one, and Victoria… he couldn't remember ever seeing her look at him that way. The memory made him sick as he looked over the very bridge where it had all happened.

He was even worse when he thought of what he had done to Victoria. He hadn't even thought. After everything in the last few days between her and him, the secrecy, the sickness, and Wyatt, had torn him apart more than he had been willing to admit. When she'd come after him he hadn't even been able to restrain himself, and his first thought of getting her as far from him as possible had sent her body back hard against the bridges railing. He could still heal her bones cracking.

He was sick to think of the pain he had caused her.

No matter what he had done he hadn't meant to hurt her. When he'd seen Victoria in the kitchen, she hadn't called for him for help when Death had arrived. She had called for Wyatt. It had been his fault that she was dead. He had killed her and now… Now, he had to live with that. How could he live knowing he'd killed the only person he'd ever really loved? The only girl he'd ever been free to talk magic with.

He didn't blame her for trying to ask Wyatt for help. Wyatt hadn't been the one that had thrown her against a bridge. Wyatt was the twice blessed son by all means, too. If anyone could stand against death it would have been Wyatt not Chris. Not the son of an Elder and not a mistake.

Chris looked out over the ocean below. It was getting darker and the gray waves were starting to churn. Everything around him was getting worse. The weather was changing and he couldn't control it because he was too emotional now to care. The wind was rapping around him and freezing his soul and he could feel the clouds barreling in around him as he stood as still as a stone as the rage built up inside of him.

Chris punched the bridge. All of his rage that he had been building up spilled out of him as pain replaced it. Blood dampened his hand. Pain ran up his left arm and whirled around his hand. Tears burned up in his green eyes, but Chris tried his hardest not to cry. He was a murderer. He didn't deserve to cry.

"Why?" he screamed at the thrashing wind.

"Chris," a soft, questioning voice came from behind him.

He turned quickly. He'd almost lost his balance as he did so.

Nothing in the world prepared him for Victoria to be standing there behind him. She was dead. He had seen Death take her with him. There was no way she was alive. Death didn't just give up on his victims. There was no way. He had to be hallucinating.

She grabbed him and pulled him back from fallin off the edge of the bridge. For one single moment, they were inches apart. The tension between them grew as they stared into eachothers eyes silently.

He almost forgot about his brother holding her on the bridge as she stood there before him. Her lond reddish-brown hair flying around her in the wind, and her dark eyes staring almost through him. There was almost a weird glow to her skin in the fading light making her look etheral. He almost forgot then and there. All he had wanted to do for that instant in time was to walk right up to her and pull her into his arms just to make sure she was still there alive with him and not some figment of his imagination. But he couldn't move and the image of her in his brother's arms nagged him. Instead of kissing her like he wanted to do, Chris moved backward and folded his arms across his chest. By doing so, he created feet between them and then he readjusted his shirt collar that was off center because of her grabbing his shirt and arm to save him from falling off the bridge.

She was alive and standing before him. Which only meant that she was here to apologize to him for being with his brother. Something a lot of girls had done before her and the longer she stayed quiet the angrier he got at her.

"Why are you here? I thought you chose Wyatt already. Shouldn't you be with my twice blessed brother?" he spat out.

She shook her head. Folding her arms around herself not defensively but to keep out the cold, harsh winding tearing at them. "Of all people in the world, _you_ were the only one I wanted to see again."

"Well, excuse me for not thinking that considering the last time I saw you, you were having a cuddling session with my brother. Which correct me if I'm wrong, but up until that moment, that I know of that is, you could barely stand being in the same room with my brother. So wouldn't you say it's a little funny that you two were alone up here in the farthest place from say humanity and that you would be in each others arms?"

She grimaced, and kicked the sole of her shoe over the bridge, "You know what, I deserve that. I get it, Chris. You're pissed. But you don't know everything so before you decide to pull that holier than thou attitude with me you've got to remember you don't know everything about this."

"And who's fault is that?" he cried throwing his arms out. "No matter what I do and no matter what I did you wouldn't open up to me. So, I don't know everything! It's not like I didn't try."

He walked a few feet away from her on the bridge. His back partially to her as he searched the ocean below, "Why couldn't you tell me?"

"Because," Victoria cried, she wanted to tell him everything, but she didn't have the time to. She knew that more than he did, but he would never understand what was about to happen. She sighed and tried to stop herself from going into it. She couldn't stop though. Words popped out of her mouth with no chance to stop them, and they kept coming despite how she tried to keep her mouth shut. "Because you looked at me like I was perfect. Like I was the one that you wanted in your life, the one who you thought that could fight demons with you, or whatever the hell you think your life is about. But it wasn't me. I don't want to forever be on the edge killing demons and risking my life. I want to just be left alone by the Elders and the demons and anything else magical, but for some reason I can't even do that right.

"I didn't ask for powers. I didn't ask to be cursed. All I wanted was to be happy and alive and to have a chance. I didn't want you to know who I really was because I was afraid alright." she cried hitting him on the chest as she did so. Not knowing why she was saying all of this. She didn't know why the truth was coming out. She had had something else to say to him, but she couldn't lie to him or not tell him exactly what she was thinking. "God, why am I saying all of this?"

"I cast a truth spell," Chris replied. Then, he kicked himself for it because he didn't want anyone to know what he had done so that he could learn the truth and also so he'd have an upperhand in it all. Damn, the spell had repercussions. Now, he'd have to avoid questions.

"You? You cast a truth spell? Nice going, Chris. You think you could have picked a worse time for a truth spell of all things! Damn it," she cried kicking at some old bridge debris.

"What do you mean?" he asked, trying to get answers out of her for once in his life.

She turned back to him. She looked him right in the eye, laughed, and threw her head back to take in a deep breath. No matter what the truth was going to come out and she hated him for that. "Everything's going to change soon, Chris." As she spoke her eyes changed into a dark blue almost the color of black. "I just wish I could be there to see it."

Victoria dropped her arms and shivered in the cold as she took a few steps back from him. Chris didn't understand. He couldn't know. She wasn't telling him everything , but he knew it was the truth. The only truth she was willing to tell him at the moment. The wind beat through him then. He felt it go through his bones as he watched her. An emptiness he hadn't felt since before he'd met her came over him again. A premonition even and he didn't want it. He didn't want any of it.

"What are you dying?" he asked her in disbelief.

"In matter of terms, yes," she replied bitterly.

"But the Elders," he scrambled.

"They were wrong," she replied in a hard voice. "They screwed up and now I have to fix it, Chris. In a matter of thinking, what I'm going to do will save thousands of innocents."

Chris opened his mouthing shaking his head in denial as he did, but she cut him off. "Don't you dare ask. Just don't, Chris. It's already hard for me."

He didn't want to lose her. He didn't want to fight her. He didn't want to see her die or be in pain. He didn't know how to fix it though. Whatever was happening to her, he couldn't fix it; he was utterly powerless against it and he hated himself for it. What was all the power he had good for if he couldn't save the one person in the world he loved? Maybe if he'd known before any of this had happened they would be alright now. Maybe, he could still figure something out. If she wouldn't tell him what was killing her maybe he could some magical elixir that would save her.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" he whispered. "Maybe if you had maybe we could..." he tried to say.

Victoria looked up at him. Tears running down her cheeks slowly. She shook her head and stepped towards him. Her hand coming to his face. Then, she leaned into him and held him as hard as she could as the wind thrashed through them.

He held her back as hard as he could. Neither cared if the other was holding too hard. They just stood there with the wind battling them. Their clothes flapping around in the wind as the rain started slowly falling down on them from the blackening sky. She turned her head up to meet his green eyes and tried to smile up at him reassuringly.

"What's coming?" he asked her.

Victoria looked down a moment. She saw his pale hand bleeding. She gently took his hand and held it lightly in hers. She kissed his bleeding knuckles and then covered it completely with her other hand. She ignored everything that tried to make its way into her mind. She wouldn't know the life and death of him. She would ignore everything that her new power was trying to beat into her and she was going to stand there and hold onto him the best way she could before everything changed.

Then, she did smile up at him reasuringly and nodding her head to herself knowing that what was about to come was for the best. There was no time like the present to say goodbye to him.

Victoria stood up on her tiptoes to kiss him. Their kiss started soft like the rain then their kiss turned into rapid smaller kisses. She held onto him tighter. Even when the kiss ended she held onto him for a long while. The world slowly came back to them as the rain pounded down harder. She let go of him then and did something she hadn't done in years. Instead of seeking cover from the rain, she raised her hands to catch the raindrops. She let her head roll back on her neck and she caught raindrops in her mouth laughing softly as she did. She barely paid attention to Chris as he watched her as if he'd never seen her before.

Ironically, it was the first time in a long time that she'd felt alive.

When she did look at him and dropped her hands from the raining sky she took a deep breath. Her hand nervously through her long, curly, wet hair for a moment and then she touched his face one more time. Her eyes scanning his whole face trying to remember every little mark on it as she did knowing she could never make anything right again for him.

"Forgive me," she asked meeting his eyes.

"For what?" he asked his eyes all over her as if he were memorizing her face, too.

Damn truth spell.

She put her hand on the back of his neck and then tapped a few spots over his body. A few valuable pressure points that would render him unconscious for the time being while she had to get things done without any added problems. She knew what she was about to do would ostarcize her in the sisters eyes until they truly understood what was happening. Then, maybe they would forgive her or at the very least understand. But Chris, her Chris, she could not risk him getting hurt through this whole process- not any more than she had already hurt him in all the confusion that had lead up to this. She wouldn't allow him to get into danger because she lost control in the last moment and she wasn't about to hurt him because he got in her way when he didn't understand what she was doing or else when he understood all too well.

Chris started to fall to the ground, but she stopped his fall. She caught him with her own weight and slowly fell to the ground with him in her arms. Victoria held onto him for a moment looking down at his peaceful innocent face. She loved him. That was all she could do now. She blinked away the rain and the tears smoldering her eyes and started to rest him up against the bridge. In the end, she had leaned him against the railing of the bridge as she kneeled a few feet from him breathing heavily at the struggle of doing so.

Chris looked peaceful laying there as the wind tore at his clothes and the rain beat down on him. She wasn't going to leave him out in the rain like this though. She had one or two tricks left from living with the sisters.

"Wind and clouds, not allowed. Rain and cold, never escape suns hold. Warmth and light, come to me. Stay off the night, and warm the day." Victoria whispered. As soon as the words were spoken, the wind stopped. A moment of darkness came where the rain paused and then the clouds dissappeared.

Victoria's attention went back to Chris. He laid still in the warm sunlight. Now, the worst case scenario would be a small sunburn not a cold of some magnitude. She brushed his soft brown hair off of his pale face. Then, she leaned in and kissed his forehead. Her tears fell harder, but she could barely feel them through the chill of the cold rain drenching her body.

"Everything," she whispered in reply.

The last thing she saw as she left him on the top of the world was the dried blood on his healed hand.


	36. Chapter 36

-1"Piper," Phoebe whispered. "Piper."

Phoebe laid on the floor of the attic. Glass and debris were everywhere. A few boards of wood from the collapsed ceiling overhead were riddled over the hardwood floor and a few small stray rays of sunlight shone down on her as she tried to move.

Wyatt tripped over some of the floorboards. He slowly made his way through all of the wood boards towards his aunt. For whatever reason he'd come up to the attic trying to find more power out of the Book of Shadows, he was over it. Now, all he wanted to do was make sure his aunt was alright, heal her if she wasn't, and figure out what the hell had just happened to him and probably to Phoebe where they both wanted to go power crazy.

"Phoebe, just hold on," he told her as he made his way over to her and crawled over some wooden beams.

Within moments, Wyatt was right next to his aunt and pulling off the last boards to find her underneath. Blood caked her forehead and ran down her neck gushing out of a deep cut on her head. She moaned and fell onto her back.

"Phoebe?" Wyatt cried. "Phoebe?"

Phoebe tossed her head back and forth as if stuck in some kind of nightmare. She groaned louder in pain as she did so. Wyatt stopped her head from moving and tried to keep her still. After a moment of fighting him, she stopped tossing her head around and he started to slowly heal her.

….Phoebe groaned and sat up. She rubbed her neck as the pain slowly eased from her neck. Instead of being in the destroyed attic, she was on the floor of the living room. Everything was in place from earlier. The unmade bed that Victoria and Chris had slept in was beside her, the fire was roaring, and there was crying.

She didn't know who was crying though. She quickly got up off the floor and started for the crying. It was all coming from the kitchen. She walked through the hallway and felt something.. Something was completely off. The world around hers colors changed. Instead of being full of life, it changed into a world of black and white.

"What the," she started and kicked something.

She stepped back and found the picture frame she'd kicked on the floor. Everyone was in it. It was from Chris's birthday. The glass was broken. Part of the picture was burned; it was the part that Victoria was in. Phoebe didn't linger on the picture long because the crying persisted. Instead, she left it on the table and pushed the kitchen door open.

A bright flash of light blinded her. The crying stopped. She opened her eyes and found everyone in the kitchen. Only instead of something going on, they all had frozen as if Piper had frozen the moment. Only Piper couldn't freeze everyone.

"Okay, what's going on?" she asked the dead room.

Leo was on the ground. He was leaning over someone and he was crying for some reason. Chris and Wyatt were by each other on the other side and she saw herself on the other side. Paige was even there standing back by the cupboards and crying. Phoebe slowly circled the room to see who it was that was on the ground.

What she found she didn't want to see. It was Piper. She was lying on the ground and she was dead. Her head was to the side that Phoebe was facing and her doe brown eyes were glazed over staring off into space. Blood was everywhere. Piper's baby was lying in Leo's arms.

"No," Phoebe cried. "No, no, no. This can't be. This can't be happening."

She moved closer to her sister in the only area left. She went to grab her hand to hold onto her and maybe to get some kind of premonition to bring her back, but before she could something hit her hand back hard. She cried out and turned to see what it was that had stopped her only to find Victoria.

"Victoria, what the hell!" she cried.

Victoria turned to her and the look on her face stopped Phoebe. It was hollow, but somehow her eyes had some fierceness to them that made her stop. It was almost like seeing Victoria for the first time again when she'd burst down the Manors doors the first time only this time there was something altogether new in her eyes.

"You're not supposed to be here."

Phoebe grimaced back onto the ground. Victoria hadn't spoken out loud. Her voice had been inside of Phoebe's head. It was like what she'd done earlier when she'd raped Phoebe's mind in order to get her premonitions off of her. Only this time her voice was grinding into her mind as she sat dumbly on the floor staring at Victoria as she kneeled over Piper's dead body.

"Neither are you." Phoebe replied. "What's happening? Piper?"

"She's dead," Victoria replied. She laid beside Piper on the ground. Positioning herself the same way that Piper's body was.

"What are you doing?" Phoebe cried. "Victoria, how'd this happen? I can go back. I can change everything. Whatever happened, whatever you're planning on doing. We can change it all. Just tell me how. Just tell me what happened to my sister!"

Victoria shook her head. "It was unavoidable. When you go back you'll be too late."

"But what happened?"

Victoria sighed. She had her hand hovering beside Piper's ready to take it, but stopped. Then, she leaned back up on her elbow. "Phoebe, I'm sorry. I don't have time to explain everything to you, but I will warn you about something else because if you are here then something else is going to happen and I think I can figure out what easily. Okay? You trust me, right?"

"I don't know."

"Phoebe, come on. Be an empath and tell that I'm not lying to you already."

"Fine, you're not lying. But seriously, missy, what makes you think that I should trust you so easily after the last few days?"

"Point taken." Victoria replied and then laid back on the ground. Her reddish-brown hair fanning out around her. Her dark blue eyes changed for a moment to a soft violet color and a slight smile curved her lips. Then, it was gone.

"Okay. Tell me."

"The demon that created all of this mess. The one that passed on his stolen powers to Leigh."

"Leigh? He passed on powers to Leigh?"

"Yeah, and that's what's making all of our emotions all crazy and why you all are trying to get things that you want despite the rules of personal gain. Plus, it's the reason why Piper went into Pleasantville mode where she forgot about magic. Remember?"

"Yes, I remember," Phoebe snapped. "It doesn't explain what you are about to do now."

"That, you can't know. But, Phoebe, seriously, the demon that came back and attacked Leigh this morning is coming back again, and what better time to attack the Manor but now while the Charmed Ones are at their worst."

"Yeah, well one of us is dead."

Victoria just looked down and pursed her lips. Her eyes lingering on Piper's hand.

"No, wait. What are you planning on doing?" Phoebe asked trying to get closer to Victoria, but having the problem of people frozen solid all around her.

Victoria just looked at her and held out her hand towards Piper.

"Wait."

"Phoebe, would you just accept the fact already. I can't be here."

"What do you mean you can't be here? Victoria, if you're doing what I think you're doing then you better think again cause if Piper's dead, and no one saved her then Death isn't just going to give her up."

"Well, it's a good thing that one of us has more leverage with him now, isn't it?" Victoria retorted.

"What leverage could you possibly.. Oh no, Victoria. You can't switch places with Piper." Phoebe cried.

"Watch me," Victoria replied and grabbed a hold of Piper's hand.

The same bright flash that had blinded Phoebe on the way into the kitchen flung her back against the wall. Groaning, Phoebe opened her eyes to find herself in the attic. Wyatt was kneeling over her with his hands coming back from her head. His dark blue eyes meeting hers as she sighed in relief.

"Alright, Aunt Phoebe. Don't scare me like that again," he said.

"Oh no." She cried sitting up quickly.

"What? You're alive. I think a thank you is in order along with an explanation. Mom's gonna kill you when she sees this place."

"Oh, no. Oh, no." Phoebe cried standing up and starting towards the attic door.

"Hey!"

"No, Wyatt. You don't understand if what's going to happen is actually already happening we have to be downstairs like now!" she yelled back to him.

"Did you have a premonition?"

"More like a freaking intervention." Phoebe told him opening the door to the attic.

"Huh?" Wyatt asked, running right into her. "Hey!"

Phoebe quickly pushed him back and ducked for the floor. A fireball whizzed overhead. Wyatt flew into the couch and ducked behind it along with Phoebe as the demon walked into the room. Another fireball made a hole in the couch leaving them both to scatter for new places of refuge.

"Did you think I wasn't going to come back for what was mine, witches?" the demon asked.


	37. Look What Happened

Wyatt instantly pushed Phoebe away from him as Norxous came striding into the room. It was easier to keep her safe if she wasn't directly by him and in the way of being fired at. He hoped at least. Most demons killed the weak one first, but Wyatt was going to do his damnedest to keep his aunt safe. If he couldn't protect Victoria he sure as hell was going to protect his aunt from Death.

Victoria. He couldn't think about her right now. If he did he'd be too distracted against the attacks that Norxous was going to throw at him. He just wished that his aunt hadn't made a chaotic mess of the attic on top of everything. It would be easier to get rid of Norxous if he was by the book and could find the vanquish in it for him. But he had no idea where the book could be in all the mess. Without the book, he would have to wait out Norxous and see how stupid the demon could be. Which, at the moment, he was doubting the stupidity factor of the demon considering he'd waited till now to attack only the two of them. For all Wyatt knew, Norxous was just dividing and conquering the Charmed family until everyone was dead and there was no one left between himself and Leigh.

Leigh. God, he hadn't thought about Leigh since.. Well, he couldn't really remember the last time she had annoyed him. It had to have been this morning when she'd woken up in his room and caught him in a towel.

This morning.. It didn't seem like it'd only been hours ago before everything changed. Before he found out what Victoria was really battling. The vampire nature of whatever was taking over her.

The moment she had kissed him.

He wanted it to be more than a kiss. It had to be more than a kiss, right?

They'd kissed on top of the bridge while the world woke up around them and the sun started over the horizon. If that wasn't romantic he didn't know what was.

Wyatt could still see the warm orange light brushing over her porcelain skin. Her dark violet eyes opening to look up at him as her lips left his. She didn't know, but he had never expected a kiss from anyone to be that good. It couldn't have just been a kiss, right? It couldn't have just been her thanking him for letting her take some of his energy to stay alive, could it?

Her eyes. Her face.. The moment that Chris had appeared whatever they had had between each other had just disappeared. It was like a spell had lifted and she'd realized what she was doing and who she'd hurt. She had went after Chris, but Chris.. He'd thrown her against the bridge. He'd broken almost all of her bones when she'd tried to explain to him. How could Chris claim to love her when he'd done that?

Wyatt tried to calm his anger towards his brother, but he knew he couldn't. It was Wyatt's fault. He should have stopped her from kissing him. He should have just let her live and told everyone what was going on with her. It should have been a family decision on who helped her not some rash decision on the spur of the moment to save her. Chris hadn't meant to hurt her that bad.

Chris hadn't understood. Why? Why hadn't she told Chris what was happening? Why had she let him in and not Chris?

But none of that mattered now. They'd never know, never understand what was happening to her. Death had come after her. Death. No one could fight Death. It wasn't fair!

A fireball flew past Wyatt almost striking him but at the very last moment he ducked out of its way. Bringing him out of his thoughts, and forcing him to take some kind of action. Norxous's black hair fell into his black eyes as he watched them. A fireball starting to grow in his hands again.

"Looks like he already has his magic back, doesn't it?" Phoebe asked Wyatt.

"Sure does. How's that possible?"

"I'm in the same house as the one carrying my powers." Norxous spit at them. "I can still tap into them. Not like it's hard now considering how they're taking over her. It'll only a matter of time before they kill her and I'll be here waiting. And you, you will all be dead."

"I don't think so," Wyatt replied and threw his own power back at Norxous. The electric ball threw Norxous back against the wall, but he merely bounced off of it and wiped his shoulder.

"That all you got, Witch?"

"Did he just call me a witch?" Wyatt asked Phoebe.

"Uh, yeah. I think he did." she replied from her spot beside the stained glass window.

Wyatt threw two more balls of electricity at Norxous. One he aimed at his chest and the other he aimed at his abdomen. He hoped one of them would make some kind of dent in the demons armor.

"You fool. As long as I have my powers you can't kill me." Norxous yelled back and threw his fireball.

Wyatt jumped out of the fireballs way, but it still struck his foot. Pain shot up from his toes to his ankle. He cried out and leaned back against the couch. He quickly kicked out the flames that were licking at his calves and sat back up against the couch. He tried to slowly move his legs once the flames were gone but pain raced up them.

"Damn it," he whispered, biting back pain.

Phoebe stared at him from her corner adjacent to him. She saw the pain cross his face and looked back at Norxous. Her nephew was in trouble and she couldn't just sit there and watch. Besides, she had to show Wyatt that she was an all powerful Charmed One that he didn't have to protect or throw in the corner to save. She had to admit she deserved it after the last stunt she had done trying to get more powers than she'd had before by using the Book of Shadows, but that was all because of a spell.

Phoebe stepped out of the corner and towards the demon. She had powers and it was time she used them. Instantly, she started to channel the demons feelings. His anger ran over her just as thick and deadly as the flames that had burned her nephews feet. Norxous was enraged because someone had betrayed him and taken his powers off of him.

"How dumb could you be to let someone just walk away with your powers?" she asked him with her hands balled at her sides.

"Witch, I'll take my time vanquishing you." he told her crossing the distance between them.

Before she could comment the door to the attic flew open. Paige stepped in and took in the whole scene. Her eyes growing huge as she took in the destroyed attic and then the demon standing beside Phoebe. Instantly, she waved her hand at the demon and towards the wall, "Demon!"

"Paige, where have you been?" Phoebe cried.

"Magic school. Midterms week and parent teacher conferences. Not to mention a student cast a spell on me because I gave her a 'C'. A 'C' it's not like I failed her!" Paige cried walking over to Phoebe.

'Oh, Paige," Phoebe couldn't help but giggle. "Your hair.. It's so green!"

"Don't. I know. Needless to say, the girl that did this is so expelled."

Norxous flew hard into the wall and slid down it, but he caught himself before he hit the ground. He turned to face Paige and growled. She looked at him and made a face. She repeated what she had done before slamming him harder into the wall.

"What did I miss?" Paige asked.

"A lot!" Phoebe emphasized waving her hand over the attic.

"What happened to the attic?" she cried waving her hand.

"Leigh, our innocent, has powers that are messing with anyone that gets in contact with her. Piper forgot she was magical. Wyatt.. I don't know I think he came up here for the same reason that I was up here."

"And that would be what?" Paige asked, her eyebrows raising to be hidden under her bangs.

"Well, power. I wanted more powers."

"Figures. Where is everybody though. I mean, come on. I heard the explosion and I ran up here so where's everybody else at?"

"Good question. I don't know." Phoebe looked over at Wyatt for help.

"Well, Chris is.. Gone. Victoria is with Death. Uh, mom was downstairs playing Pollyanna with Leigh. Dad, Dad left after the fight."

"Wow, wow. Fight?" Piper asked.

But Norxous was up again. He threw a fireball at her, but Phoebe channeled him and threw it straight back at him. He cried out and held his side. "Witch!"

"Yeah, what's it to you?" Phoebe asked.

"I'll be back and when I do."

"Yadda yadda kill us yadda yadda, right?" Paige asked.

The demon stared at her a moment and then shimmered out. Paige shook her head, "You'd think they'd figure out a better come back by now."

"He's immune to Wyatts powers. We really should find a vanquish for him when he does come back," Phoebe told her.

"Yeah, yeah. All in good time." Paige replied and turned back to Wyatt. "Spill, what happened? What fight?"

Wyatt looked between both of his aunts. His shoulders hunched and he shrugged, "It's a long story."

"Well, I don't hear anyone calling my name. No school to attend, and you've got my attention. So, talk already."

"I still need to be healed and Phoebe should be checked too. I don't know if I missed anything when I healed her since Norxous interrupted."

"Alright. I'll heal you both. In the meantime you can start telling me this epic story you want to hide." Paige insisted.

"Fine," he replied and started telling them the whole story…..

……Leigh sat beside Piper biting her lip the whole time. Piper's water had broken and she was still unconscious which was something that she knew had to be bad. She slowly touched Piper's sweaty forehead. It was cold and she was shivering.

Leigh had no idea what to do. Everyone had just left without a trace. Besides, what was she supposed to do? Here, she was stuck in a house full of crazy people who somehow had creepy magical powers. The only person she'd even thought was safe to be around had been kidnapped by Wyatt.

Geez. Some girls had all the fun. Not only did Victoria have a hottie sensitive guy chasing her, but she had Wyatt one of the best looking guys in a towel she'd ever seen. Jealous, she had to admit it.

But now here she was stuck in a kitchen with a woman that seriously had went off the deep end. First, Piper was the leader of the family and next she's a freaking Stepford Wife. Leigh had no idea what to do now.

She knew she could leave. There wasn't anyone left to stop her. After the huge magical battle between Chris and Wyatt over Victoria, everyone had just ditched the place.

Then, Piper had fainted. No matter how much Leigh thought about running and getting as far away from these crazy alien people she couldn't just leave Piper alone. Which was crazy considering Piper was one of the people holding her hostage. Leigh just knew she was suffering from a crazy bout of Stockholm Syndrome and now here she was waiting for her main captor to wake up.

As much as Leigh didn't want to admit it, a lot of what the family had said and were doing made sense. They were trying to keep her safe and of course their home base was the best place to. Still, all she wanted to do was go home and crawl into her bed and forget about last night when her life had just gone plain crazy.

But she couldn't.

Leigh wiped the stray hair out of Piper's face and looked around the kitchen. She grabbed a washcloth and wet it. She laid it over Piper head and then she ran into the living room for a pillow to rest Pipers head on. No matter what, she didn't want to move Piper. Besides, she couldn't. She could barely carry her three-year-old cousin let alone a grown pregnant woman.

"Piper," she said uncomfortably trying to wake Piper up.

Leigh knew she shouldn't be here. This was just plain crazy. Maybe, if she closed her eyes and clicked her heels together she'd be okay.

Frowning, she tried it. Maybe, just maybe some magic would come out of it considering she was here in a house containing magical creatures. Maybe, it rubbed off. She'd always wanted to move stuff with her mind or read peoples thoughts that could be cool not to mention the fact that she could finally find out what Bobby Dumbcheck thought about her or hell find out what really happened to her red stilettos that Chloe had borrowed from her last year.

Leigh slowly opened her eyes hoping for home. Instead, she found herself still stuck in the kitchen. Frowning she slouched over and looked down at a still unconscious Piper.

"Piper!" she called again trying to wake her up. "Come on, Piper. You're water broke and I totally have no experience at this kind of thing. Maybe, if you nabbed my friend Betty we'd be better off since she's like 24 and has a kid, but me? Nadda."

Piper didn't move. She remained unconscious. Leigh went to bend over and take the towel off of Piper's forehead when her vision blurred. She grabbed the side of the island and closed her eyes. She opened them but the world swirled around her blurrily. She tried to catch her breath, but it didn't work. Instead, the world swirled around her faster as if she were twirling.

"Piper, come on." she whimpered. "I think I need your help now."

Before she could do anything else, Leigh fell over. She laid right beside Piper. Her side touching the cold ground as she tried to catch her breath. It felt like something was ripping at her skin and clawing at her throat, but when she opened her eyes there was nothing there. All she saw was red everywhere around her on the floor, but she couldn't understand what it was or where it was coming from.

Her eyes rolled back up into her head and the world disappeared…

…."Let me get this straight." Paige said turning to Wyatt and Phoebe as she paced back to them. "You kissed Chris's girlfriend, Chris got pissed and fought you, and you just let him leave. You didn't even try to explain?"

"Well, what was I supposed to do."

"Well, not kiss your brother's love interest for one thing," Phoebe pitched in.

"Hey! She kissed me."

"Yeah, but I don't think she did it for the same reason that you did," Paige said.

Wyatt glared at her.

"Anyways, you need to go and get Chris back cause Norxous isn't going to stay away forever and we need to get Leigh out of here."

"No way." Wyatt replied.

"Yes way, Wyatt. We can't just wait for Chris to stop sulking cause believe me I know he can do it way longer than any other human being on earth. So, you have to go and get him back. I don't care what you say to him, or hell what you do. Just get him back here pronto so we can fix this before it gets any worse." Paige ordered.

Wyatt folded his arms over his chest and glared at his aunt. She glared right back at him with one eyebrow raised and waited for him to go. Finally, he gave up and left.

"What are we going to do with those two?" Phoebe asked her.

"More like three. I don't know what's up with Victoria, but in my book she's an innocent now and we have to save her."

"What about what Wyatt said about Death taking her?"

"If he wanted Victoria dead he could have done it already. Besides, I have a sneaking feeling that there is some kind of magic relation to all of the things that have happened in the last few days. So, if we can pull everyone back together. Gets the boys resolved for two seconds and call Death here we might be able to get some answers."

"You make it sound so easy," Phoebe replied, sarcastically.

Alright, I'm curious. Do I still have any of my old readers reading this or do i have new ones?


End file.
